


Land and Sea

by Nomolosk



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged up characters, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Developing Relationship, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Minor Angst, Slow Burn, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:33:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28463169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nomolosk/pseuds/Nomolosk
Summary: When Marinette joined Alya and Nino for a weekend at the beach, the last thing she expected was to be lost at sea, or to be rescued by a very handsome merman.When Adrien volunteered to swim a remote patrol, the last thing he expected was to meet his soulmate... or for her to be human.ON HIATUS as of 2/7/21
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois/Luka Couffaine, Emilie Agreste/Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Sabine Cheng/Tom Dupain
Comments: 94
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

“We’re heeeerrre!” Alya sang out as she parked the rental car as close to the hotel’s beach access as possible. Marinette blinked herself awake as Alya and Nino got out of the car and opened the trunk to start getting things out. Marinette opened her own door and the salty breeze woke her up more. Between them, they managed to get checked in and all their things into the hotel room in what must be record time. 

They changed into beach wear and headed out, laden with towels, chairs, umbrellas, and a foam raft from the Lahiffes’ last beach holiday that they’d only brought because it had an anchor weight for safety.

The three of them had pooled their money for this weekend getaway, and Marinette was very much looking forward to relaxing before the new semester at ESMOD started. Etretat had pebble beaches instead of sand, but the water was supposed to be refreshing instead of cold in August, and it had the added attraction of seeing merfolk at certain times of year. Living in Paris and almost never going on vacation because of the bakery, Marinette had only ever seen pictures of merfolk. They didn’t encourage video, and never swam up the rivers.

As they went down to the beach there were several signs that informed beach-goers how to treat any merfolk they might see, and they all stopped to read them just in case. Marinette secretly hoped to see at least one, but knew that was a long shot. According to the signs, the merfolk around Etretat only came near shore when someone needed rescuing, and otherwise stayed away.

They found a good spot and got everything set up, with their three chairs in a shallow arc and the umbrellas angled to give them shade later when it got really hot. Marinette decided to sunbathe, while Nino and Alya went down to the water. She put on sunscreen and took a few pictures of her two best friends playing in the waves before putting on a beachy playlist and closing her eyes to relax. It didn’t feel like a long time before Alya came back up to get her, but the shadows had moved.

“Hey girl, aren’t you tired of just sitting there yet? The water is perfect! Besides, with all that sunscreen on, it’s not like it’s doing you any good...”

Marinette blew her a raspberry. “Just because  _ you _ don’t have to worry about turning into a lobster doesn’t mean no one else does. Besides, I’m getting plenty of vitamin D, thank you very much. Still,” she said, sitting up and turning her phone off. She felt ready for some exercise now that she was relaxed, “I guess I’m up for trying to drown you!”

Marinette launched herself out of her chair and Alya took off down to the water, laughing and shrieking. Marinette was small, but she was  _ fast. _ She caught up just as Alya ran into the water and tackled her around the waist, sending them both plunging in. Luckily it was deep enough even at the shoreline that the water cushioned their fall. That said, the sudden change of temperature shocked Marinette enough to send her gasping up out of the water.

When she got her wet hair out of her face, Nino and Alya were falling over themselves laughing at her. 

Marinette blew a raspberry at them both and sent a playful splash of water towards them. Nino returned it, which only resulted in all of them having a water fight before they settled down to talking and floating in the shallow water.

Since the beach was pebbled they couldn’t build a sandcastle, so after a while Nino and Alya went back to the chairs to sunbathe and warm up a little. Marinette wasn’t quite ready to get out of the water, so she got the float out, making sure the anchor rope was tied securely at both ends. She waded out to where the water came up to her shoulders and then climbed aboard to do some more relaxing.

She wanted to give Alya some alone time with her boyfriend, and besides, the undulating waves were soothing. Alya and Nino had matched their soulmate marks a few weeks after they first met, and they’d been together ever since. But she would be sharing a room with them for the next few days, so she wanted to give them some space when she could. They were usually pretty good about not making her feel like a third wheel, but sometimes their PDA was a little much, and she was here to  _ relax _ , not to feel bad about being single.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t dated before- Nathaniel, Luka, even Theo… Kim didn’t count, because it was only a friend date- he’d needed someone to take to a family gathering to keep the relations off his back, Alix had refused, and Max was out of town. The truth was that she just hadn’t clicked with anyone yet, and she’d come to terms with that. She would meet her soulmate when the time was right, and in the meantime...

Marinette slipped the safety line around her wrist and lost herself to the rocking motion of the ocean.

\----

Adrien swam a patrol route, powerful strokes of his tail sending him through the water with ease. He’d bargained for a tertiary route, one of the far-flung sections that no one expected to find anything in, solely for the sake of being on his own- the lack of anyone else to tell him what to do and when more than made up for the isolation of the route itself. Not that he felt particularly lonely most of the time- he had friends. But even though there was no guarantee he would succeed his father King Gabriel, being the son of the King still meant he was treated differently. 

He was halfway through the patrol, swimming just a few meters below the surface, when his soulmate scales started tingling. That, of course, immediately put him on alert. He stopped, peering as far as he could through the darkness- out here in the deep ocean, even a few meters below the surface the light diffracted enough to make seeing difficult. He tried a few clicks and trills- standard signals, if another mer was nearby. And it had to be another mer all the way out here. 

There was no reply. 

Closing his eyes, he tried the limited echolocation that water-breathing allowed for. The clicks used in echolocating were much faster and higher pitched and, though instinctual, took more effort to produce. They were inaudible to everything but that certain portion of his ears that were tuned to them, and accurate up to ten fathoms in every direction. 

There was nothing, except a school of wild fish farther out- not any of the types merfolk usually raised. The water around him was empty, yet… his scales still tingled. In fact, it was getting stronger, turning into a prickling sensation. 

Following a hunch, Adrien turned his face toward the surface and tried again, first the clicks and trills, then the echolocation. This time, he got a result- a fuzzy straight-edged shape that could only be human in origin. Merfolk didn’t bother much with straight shapes, as arches and curves tended to be more stable underwater.

Feeling his pulse pick up, Adrien headed toward that shape, the prickles getting sharper with every length he swam.

\----

Marinette woke up to a prickling sensation across her cheeks and nose. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she felt relaxed and lazy, and if it weren’t for the persistent prickling- like the pins and needles of a limb ‘waking up,’ except less intense- she would have been happy to drift off again.

Instead, she sat up and looked around, wondering if Alya and Nino were ready to eat, or even to head back to the hotel, or… She froze. All she could see was water. Everywhere, in every direction, just… water. And the swells… well, they were big. And getting bigger. The sky was no longer clear, either, with grey clouds slowly overtaking it.

Panic gripped her and she clambered around on the float, reaching for the spot where the anchor was supposed to be tied. The ring was broken- the rope, and the anchor it was attached to, was long gone.

“Okay. Okay okay okay,” she said, pressing her fingers into her cheeks to calm the prickling. “Don’t panic! Alya and Nino will notice you’re gone- they won’t just... go back to the hotel without you! They’ll tell the coast guard, and  _ someone _ will know about currents, and… they’ll find you! They’ll find you.”

At least the float was relatively sturdy. It was a long rectangle of foam with an inflated piece at one end to act as a pillow. She wouldn’t have wanted to be out here with nothing but a beach-rated inflatable float. Of course, she didn’t want to be  _ out here _ at all.

Marinette dipped a hand into the cool water and splashed her face. This was fine. She was going to be  _ found _ , she was going to  _ make it. _ She was  _ not _ going to panic, or lose her head and make the situation worse. 

She reached for another handful of water because darn it, her face was driving her nuts! Maybe it was a sunburn. Maybe she’d been out here long enough for the sunscreen to wear off... 

Her hand touched something solid in the water. Marinette shrieked, overbalanced, and rolled right off the float and into the water. Again, the sudden change in temperature briefly shocked her- enough that she barely registered the hands around her rib cage, pushing her up- before she was heaving herself back onto the float.

Something bumped the underside of the float and she squeaked, then laid down flat on her belly to minimize how much it dipped into the water, hoping that whatever it was would grow bored and swim away. When nothing more happened, she relaxed a little, breathing and trying to calm her racing heart. Then something broke the surface next to her and she flinched, pinching her eyes shut.

A hesitant touch on her arm made her look. Relief washed over her like a wave as she recognized what- or rather,  _ who- _ it was. It was a merfolk! 

“H-hello,” Marinette said, staring wide-eyed, cheeks prickling like mad. The water must be irritating her sunburn. Awed as she was, she could feel her fear lifting. This merfolk must have noticed her float out here and come to help her. Gratitude joined the awe, even though the merfolk had, as yet, done nothing except scare her to death. But somehow, Marinette couldn’t find it in herself to be angry with it.

The mer in front of her was beautiful- grass green eyes with unusually large pupils, features mostly human with brow ridge and nose, though the nose was a little flattened, and the brow ridges lacked eyebrows. His skin was covered with tiny glittering green scales, with a few sky blue ones scattered here and there across its cheekbones- almost like freckles, and short blonde hair that somehow avoided looking dull, dirty, and limp even though it was wet. His nostrils were pinched shut and he didn’t make any effort to speak to her, which puzzled her a little. Weren’t they supposed to know human languages?

He ducked his head back under the surface and though the water concealed most of him, he stayed near enough to the surface that Marinette could see his nostrils flare and his chest expand. A lightbulb went off- he must still be using gills! 

She noticed that his eyes remained open, staring straight at her, while he was under water. When he broke the surface again, he tentatively reached a scaled and partially webbed hand toward her face. Marinette blinked and drew back, and he paused. The mer blinked, shook his head, and pulled his hand back.

“Do… do you want to touch my face?” Marinette asked, hoping he could understand her even if he couldn’t speak. She rubbed her cheeks again, trying once again to get rid of the prickling. The mer ducked back underwater for another breath, and shook his head, then nodded, eyes never leaving hers. It was beginning to be a bit uncomfortable, this extended eye-contact, but Marinette tried not to look away, thinking it might be rude. 

The mer started moving his hands in a way that reminded Marinette of sign language, but of course she had no idea what he wanted. After a minute or two, when her confusion must have been plain, the mer shook its head and surfaced again, mouth stretching into a wry smile as his eyes closed. He held onto the edge of her float, stubby clawed fingers denting the foam.

After a moment the scales on his face, tiny as they already were, grew thinner and smaller until they disappeared entirely, sinking into skin that had a brief pearlescent sheen before even that faded away, and his skin looked entirely human. At the same time, the stubby claws on his fingers thinned into nails of normal length and thickness. All of a sudden the mer’s nostrils flared wide and it took a deep breath of air and nearly choked.

Marinette jumped. “Are you alright?” she asked quickly. 

The mer smiled and coughed a few times, eyes still closed. When he opened them again, they held a hint of mischief. “Yes, I’m fine. Hello,” a surprisingly deep voice said, and Marinette swallowed reflexively. 

“Uh, hi,” she repeated. “What… what was all that about?” she asked, gesturing to his hands.

“Hmm,” the merfolk hummed. “I think that’s something we should discuss closer to shore. You are a human, yes?”

Marinette nodded, wondering why he was even asking. 

The merfolk’s smile turned rueful, but perhaps Marinette was misinterpreting his facial expression. “My name is Adrien. May I know yours?”

“Uh… Marinette,” she answered, still a little dazed by, well, everything. Then she shook her head. “I-I’m sorry. It’s nice to meet you, Adrien.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Marinette,”‘ Adrien smiled, and then chuckled. “ _ Marinette _ meaning ‘of the sea.’ How appropriate.”

“... Why is my name appropriate?” Marinette asked, thoroughly confused.

Adrien shook his head again. “Later. For now, let’s get you back to shore! And next time, make sure you’re not using a defective raft, okay?”

“I didn’t think it was defective!” Marinette protested. Then she remembered that this mer- Adrien- didn’t  _ have _ to help her. “I-I mean, of course. I’ll make sure next time. And… thank you,” she amended, as Adrien moved around and under the float to where he could grip the sides of the pillow. For all intents and purposes, they were now more or less face to face, with Adrien floating on his back. 

Adrien smiled reassuringly at her, then tipped his head back and closed his eyes. Marinette had the opportunity to see the scales emerge again, and watched in awe. He let his head sink back under the water, and then she felt the float try to slide out from under her and Marinette realized he was swimming her back to shore. She clutched the sides of the pillow to hold herself on and accidentally clutched his hands. It was only for a moment- Marinette quickly moved her own hands to the top of the pillow instead- but she saw Adrien lift his head a little to grin and actually  _ wink _ at her, and she sank down lower on the raft, feeling heat flood her cheeks. Her fingers tingled with the remembered sensation of alien fingers under her own, though, reinforcing the prickling still dancing across her cheeks.

She shook her head again-  _ what was wrong with her? _ Did she have sunstroke or something? Why was she having such a hard time thinking? And  _ why wouldn’t her cheeks stop prickling? _

Oh, who was she kidding- strange though he undoubtedly was, Adrien had the most beautiful face she’d ever seen. If he’d been human, she could think of at least five different fashion houses who would have  _ loved _ to have him for a model.

Marinette groaned and put her face down on the pillow. Alya was going to give her  _ such _ a hard time about this.

\----

Adrien was finding it hard to breathe. Not because he was fatigued or swimming too fast, or anything like that. No, he was having a hard time breathing because he was so  _ excited. _ His soulmate! He’d finally found his soulmate! And she was  _ human…! _

If he’d been air-breathing, he would have laughed out loud. All that effort his father had put into keeping him  _ away _ from humans... and it was all for nothing. It didn’t even matter that his father probably wouldn’t approve- human/merfolk soulmates were rare, but they did happen, and that put tradition firmly on Adrien’s side. He would finally be able to walk among humans without worrying about defying his father!

As for the girl herself… well. She’d been polite, even after he accidentally scared her, and she was obviously scared to find herself so far out to sea, but she had shown a little spirit when he teased her about her raft. He really hoped that glimpse of fight she’d shown him wasn’t a one-time thing. Adrien knew soulmates were supposed to be complimentary, and he was finding the idea of a partner who wasn’t afraid to defend herself very attractive.

It didn’t hurt that she was physically attractive, too. Time would tell, but as he spied her peeking anxiously over the top of the mounded part of her raft, he grinned and thought that it might not take much time at all to fall in love with her. Of course, she currently had no idea he was her soulmate, but he was going to fix that as soon as prudently possible. He might be excited to have a human soulmate, but that didn’t mean he could wholly ignore King Gabriel’s decrees on secrecy.

\----

Marinette was quivering with nervous tension by the time the mer- Adrien- brought her back in sight of the shore. They were still too far away to tell if it was the same stretch of beach she, Alya, and Nino had been on earlier, but just the  _ sight _ of land made her tear up- it had been an unnervingly long ride. Fortunately, they had left the gathering clouds behind, and the afternoon light was bright.

There were small dinghies and sport-craft out on the water, moving out from the shore in an organized pattern, and shouts went up as they were spotted. Marinette guessed she hadn’t been missed for long, or they would have met searchers farther out. One of the dinghies changed its heading toward them, and Adrien stopped, obviously waiting for the boat to reach them, instead of swimming closer to shore himself.

He surfaced again and changed to his air-breathing face- this time she noticed that his “freckle” scales turned to small white dots. 

“Looks like you’re almost home, Princess,” he said, turning to her with a wink.

Marinette raised an eyebrow at the odd choice of nickname, but smiled in thanks. “I guess so. Thank you again, Adrien. You didn’t have to do this.”

Adrien’s crooked smile returned. “Yes I did. Anyway, will you do me a favor?”

“I guess you did just save my life...” Marinette swallowed against the sudden fluttering in her stomach. “What did you have in mind?”

Adrien put one hand over hers on the raft. “Please don’t feel that you have to do it because you owe me something, Marinette. There’s a treaty between our people, so I was obligated to rescue you- you owe me  _ nothing _ for that. But… there’s a place just upshore from here where there’s an arch of rock out over the water. Will you meet me there tonight, after sunset? The tide will be out and you should be able to walk there. You can bring a friend with you if you don’t feel safe meeting me alone, though I’d prefer it if you didn’t bring anyone too curious.”

Marinette laughed at that. “I think I’d have a hard time convincing my friend  _ not _ to come with me!” she said. “She  _ is _ fairly nosey, but I can tell her it’s a secret if you want- she understands the importance of those. …  _ Is _ it a secret?”

Adrien’s smile softened, but she could have sworn his eyes sparkled. “It  _ is  _ a secret- for now. But I’m sure that if  _ you _ trust her, I can too.”

Marinette opened her mouth to object to that- after all, they knew nothing about each other!- but the approaching dinghy made it too hard to hear. The woman in the dinghy cut the motor and somehow got it to drift sideways to them. She was an older woman, her silvering hair up in a no-nonsense bun, and Marinette found her steadiness quite reassuring.

“Greetings, mer! A fair day to you!” the woman said. “Thanks to you, and to your King, for rescuing our drifter. Is there anything we can offer you in return?”

The woman’s formality made Marinette frown in confusion. Adrien had spoken casually with  _ her _ … but when he spoke to the woman, he used more formal language as well.

“The day is fair indeed- and made all the fairer for a pleasant swim,” Adrien said with a wink and a smirk in Marinette’s direction. Marinette tried very hard to pretend her resulting blush was just a sunburn. “But no return service is needed today. You know the agreement between us, and the standard exchange is sufficient.”

“We thank you all the same,” the woman replied, though her eyebrows rose a little. Fortunately, she seemed more amused than anything else. “Now, shall we get this young lady back to land?”

Adrien held the float steady while the woman helped Marinette get into the small boat. After so many hours stretched out and constantly awash with water, it felt strange to be sitting up on something relatively dry and solid. The woman handed Marinette a life jacket, which she put on- and then, with a final wave, Adrien sank back into the water. Marinette couldn’t help scanning for one last glimpse, so she saw it when he leapt out of the water- farther away than Marinette thought possible- and did a barrel roll, for all the world as if he were a dolphin.

“Show off,” the woman chuckled, then started the motor and took them in. Only then did Marinette notice that her cheeks had finally stopped prickling.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette talks to Nino and Alya about Adrien's request, and Adrien gets ready for the meet-up.

The ride back to shore was anticlimactic. The woman- who shouted over the roar of the motor, but Marinette could barely hear her- used a radio to call all the searchers back in. To her surprise, the woman veered away from the beach taking her farther along the coastline. Eventually Marinette saw a small port ahead of them. The woman slowed considerably, letting their momentum do most of the work. Eventually they tied up at a floating dock and they both got out.

The woman- Marguerite- took her to a small building connected to the boardwalk fronting the docks. Inside there were a few desks behind a short counter manned by another middle-aged woman. 

“This is the drifter they called in?” the woman asked her escort. 

“Yes.”

“Alright. Everything okay with you, dear?” the woman asked, even as she started shuffling through papers behind the counter.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Marinette answered. “The anchor rope on my raft broke while I was asleep, that’s all.”

“I see. Okay, I need you to fill this out- don’t forget to put your name and date, and your best recollection of the time of the incident.”

Marinette took the clipboard held out to her. She bit her lip. “Is this really necessary?”

The woman smiled at her, even as Marguerite called out a goodbye and left. “We have an arrangement with the merfolk- this just helps us keep our end of it.”

Marinette looked down at the questions. They seemed straightforward enough… She unclipped the attached pen and started filling out the paperwork. It didn’t take very long.

_ Had she been polite? _ \- Yes. 

_ When the mer/folk first appeared, what did it/they do? _

Marinette debated how to describe their interaction. Some instinct told her not to reveal how Adrien had acted toward her. She scribbled down a quick, barebones answer: Asked if I was alright and then started swimming me back to shore.

_ Did the mer/folk ask or offer anything beyond rescue?  _ \- no

Again, Marinette decided to omit the fact that Adrien had asked her to meet him. He’d said to keep it secret for now.

There were only a few other questions, just asking for details on the circumstances of the rescue, which she didn’t have any problem or qualms answering. Yes, her raft had broken, but it wasn’t like she’d intentionally put herself in danger. She’d tried to make sure her raft was safe before going to sleep on it. It was hard to determine an exact time for when she started drifting out to sea… Marinette had to think for a minute, but she did eventually remember what time her phone had displayed when she turned off the music to go play in the water with her friends. So that gave her a starting point. Even so, she had to give her best estimate and keep the answer pretty vague.

Once she was done, she gave the clipboard back to the woman behind the counter, who took it, stamped it with something, copied it, and filed it. Marinette was about to ask if she could use the phone to call Alya, when Alya and Nino both rushed in, no longer wearing their swimsuits.

“Marinette!” Alya exclaimed before throwing her arms around Marinette. Marinette hugged her back, feeling a little foolish now that it was all over.

“I’m fine,” she said, even as Nino stood there, twisting his cap in his hands. “Really, I am. The anchor rope broke off and I drifted away while I was asleep, that’s all.”

“Girl, you were lost at sea, don’t even try to downplay this,” Alya scolded, pulling back. “Now come on, I bet you’re starving! Are you all done here? They said you needed to answer some questions…”

Marinette looked a question at the woman behind the counter, who just smiled and said, “That’s all we need from you. Go on now, and try to be a little more careful in the future. The merfolk aren’t always here to rescue people, you know!”

Marinette just smiled and followed Alya and Nino back out to the boardwalk. Marinette felt self conscious in just her swimsuit away from the actual beach, but Alya had brought her shorts and a t-shirt, so she put those on, and they found a nice little seafood restaurant. Marinette was dying to tell them all about Adrien and his strange request- which she didn’t feel like she could do in public- but her growling stomach made up her mind for her. She told them everything she felt she could while they ate, though.

When they got back to the hotel, Marinette waited until they were in the room before telling them was more to the rescue than she’d said before.

“I knew you were holding out on me,” Alya said triumphantly. She plopped herself down on Nino’s lap with an expression of alert attention. Nino oofed, but wrapped his arms around her waist readily enough.

Marinette settled onto her bed and told them everything, ending with, “I didn’t tell anyone else, but... just before the lady with the boat came to get me, Adrien asked me to meet him under the stone arch tonight after sunset.”

Alya began bouncing up and down on Nino’s lap, until he snapped out of it and held her still with a fondly annoyed look.

“O.M.G. Marinette!!” Alya squealed. “He wants to  _ meet you again?? _ This is unheard of! I so wish I could go with you...”

Marinette grinned. “Well, he said I could bring a friend if I didn’t feel safe meeting him alone, so I figured I’d bring you with me. I knew you would want to meet a real mer, and I honestly have no idea why he even wants to meet me again. That’s pretty rare, isn’t it? Don’t they usually just stick to rescuing people and dealing with officials if they need something?”

Nino nodded, looking a little worried. “Yeah, that’s the way I’ve always heard it. I don’t know, dudette. Are you sure you want to go?”

Marinette sighed. “He saved my life Nino, and despite what he said, I think meeting him is the least I can do. Besides, he did say I could bring someone. I really don’t think this is going to be anything more than a conversation.” She paused. “I wonder if- no.”

“Spill!” Alya demanded, sensing that there was more.

“Well… when I woke up out there, it was because my skin was prickling. Kind of like the pins-and-needles you get when your arm falls asleep, but it wasn’t really painful. Honestly it felt like the beginning of a sunburn more than anything. But then when the- when Adrien first appeared, he tried to touch my face… but then he stopped. I asked him about it, and he said he’d tell me later.” Her expression cleared. “Oh, that’s probably why he asked to meet me, actually!”

Nino raised an eyebrow. “That’s kind of weird.”

“Yeah that is weird,” Alya said, sounding more excited than concerned.

Marinette shrugged. “Well, whatever it is, it’ll have to wait til sunset.” She walked over to the window where the sun was edging toward evening- not even close to actually setting. She sighed. It would be a long wait.

\----

Adrien shivered a little as his head broke the water and he underwent the air-breathing transformation. There was no one in sight under the arch, and he felt his heart sink a little, even though he knew it was too early to expect Marinette to be there waiting. He told himself it was a good thing, since it gave him just enough time to prepare for her arrival. And whatever friend she brought with her of course.

“She probably won’t even come, you know,” sniffed his companion, slinging the net bags she was towing up onto the rocks. There was no beach, just a shelf of rock that dropped off into the water. “If she’s human like you said, you probably scared her off.”

“She promised to come, Chloe,” Adrien said. He tried to believe that, to trust in her, but he simply didn’t know enough about humans, or this human in particular, to judge whether she was likely to keep her promise.

“Well at least  _ I’m _ here to comfort you if she doesn’t,” Chloe said, tossing her hair. “And you brought enough food for a whole pod, so we won’t starve if we don’t make it back tonight. Not that  _ I  _ would, anyway- I can outfish you anytime, anyplace.” She looked down her nose at him.

Adrien rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help smiling. Chloe had always been like this- using insults to cover her very real affection for him- when they were younger, she used to tell him he was going to be her mate. But they  _ weren’t _ soulmates, and she’d accepted that a long time ago. Chloe pushed another bag onto the rocks and Adrien flipped her the hand sign for confusion, momentarily forgetting that he could just ask out loud.

Chloe rolled her eyes at him. “I brought some human clothes for you. I’ve had them for ages, just in case you ever decided to go against dear old daddy and join me for a trip to the mainland. Besides, knowing you, you’d put on those ridiculous rags Plagg made for you and think  _ those _ were fine for meeting your soulmate for a romantic dinner.” 

Adrien flushed with gratitude. He honestly had very little idea what humans wore, but some instinct told him it was more complicated than the simple shirt and pants Plagg had woven out of seaweed fibers for him to wear on their secret expeditions to exercise his land-legs. His knowledge of human clothing was limited to seeing the skin-tight thing Marinette had been wearing- a garment that exposed her legs and shoulders as well as her arms- and the looser, and more covering things the woman in the boat had worn. 

King Gabriel didn’t care to have humans and merfolk interacting much, and aside from a few trusted spies, no one was supposed to visit the mainland. As his son, Adrien had been expected to set an example. Fortunately for him, Chloe had never been one for following the rules. She’d been to the mainland plenty of times on illicit trips, so she knew more about human customs than he did. 

Adrien surged forward and hugged her. “Thank you,” he said, before drawing back and making the sign as well out of habit. “This means a lot to me, you know. I want to make a good impression.”

“Yes… well,” Chloe responded, smoothing her hair back again. “It would reflect badly on me if I let you make a fool of yourself.” Adrien barely caught the signs she flashed him for ‘gracious acceptance’ and ‘affection,’ before she shoved him away and said, “Go get dressed, you eel! You won’t have time to cook if you don’t get started!”

Adrien grinned and heaved himself up onto the rock. “And you promise to stick around? I’ll need a witness if she agrees to the bond tonight.”

“Yes, fine,” Chloe huffed, leaning back in the water. “Although I don’t know why you won’t let me meet her along with you. It’s like you’re ashamed of me, or something.”

“You know it’s not that,” Adrien reassured her, as he pulled himself further up. He didn’t want to slide back into the water once he had his legs. “I just don’t want her to get the wrong impression, you know? If she agrees, you can meet her anyway.”

“I suppose I  _ am _ rather too fabulous for her to ignore,” Chloe said, smirking now.

“Exactly,” Adrien said, smiling warmly- and a bit smugly- at Chloe’s faint blush. She was used to puffing herself up like a blowfish, but since she was also as prickly as a blowfish, she wasn’t used to people agreeing with her. Especially not when they obviously meant it. Without another word, Chloe resumed her yellow-green scales and disappeared under the dark water. There was another rock formation protruding from the waves a little ways away from the arch, and that was where she was going to stay unless and until Adrien called her to come. 

If Marinette agreed to accept and confirm the soulbond between them tonight, he would need his tail back anyway, and calling her would be a simple matter. But first, he needed to have legs so he could prove he could meet with Marinette on an equal basis. With a great deal of concentration, Adrien forced his tail to split, the muscles and bones in it rearranging and combining in new ways. It ached a little, but it was a natural transformation for merfolk, so it didn’t hurt too much, it just took time. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he had legs. He felt dull, drained, and shaky, but he had legs.

Adrien reached over to the bag of crabs and unceremoniously bashed one against the rock until the tough shell split, sucking the innards out and tossing the shells out into the water. Once he had regained some energy, he opened the waterproof bag Chloe had brought and pulled the clothing out, marvelling at it. There were three pieces in all- long pants in a dark grey color. He put those on first, mindful of the lack of natural coverage for his private parts. The material stretched with his every movement- he couldn’t tell how that was accomplished, and as he continued dressing, he grew more and more curious. 

There was a white form-fitting shirt that had no sleeves at all. At first he couldn’t figure it out because it looked too small, but then he discovered the fabric stretched, though it was much thinner than the pants. He finally wrestled his way into that, then put the other shirt on over it. That was made of the same material as the pants, and part of it was the same color- a dark grey, like wet rocks. 

There were also some flat things that Adrien suspected might be a kind of mix of plastic and foam. They seemed tough and faintly squishy, and repelled water- or at least, didn’t absorb it. After puzzling about their use for a while he decided they might go on his feet. It took him two tries before he put them on the right way, but once they were on, his feet felt warmer- no longer in contact with the cool water still washing the edge of the rock shelf.

Now fully dressed, he was ready to start cooking. He grabbed the waterproof bag of wood and kindling, and decided to build the fire close to the inland wall of the arch. The tide was still on it’s way out and wouldn’t bother them there for a few hours at least. 

The sun was almost down now, the sky above him streaked with pink and orange but fading fast. He wanted to make sure the food he’d brought was ready by the time Marinette- and possibly her friend- arrived, so he got busy. Plagg had taught him the few recipes for cooked food that he himself knew, so Adrien tossed some crabs into a dented metal pot with water and some kind of seasoning Plagg had given him in a waterproof box. He also prepared a medium sized salmon to cook in a pan, discarding the bones in the water for the shrimp to pick clean. He went ahead and put the crabs on the fire, but kept the salmon back since it wouldn’t take nearly as long to cook, and he didn’t want it to grow cold waiting for her arrival.

By the time the sun was completely down and the light had faded, he was nervous enough to pace back and forth under the arch, checking both sides for any sign of his soulmate and whoever she chose to bring with her.

He wondered what they would make of his legs. As far as he knew, most humans were aware that merfolk had two forms- water breathing, and air breathing- but not many knew they had a third form, which changed their tail into human legs. 

His father wanted merfolk to remain mysterious and unknown to the humans as much as possible. He hadn’t even wanted Adrien to learn the full transformation- so much so that Adrien had had to learn and practice it in secret with Plagg’s help. As far as King Gabriel knew, he could still only manage the air-breathing transformation, and Adrien had wanted to keep it that way. After all, what his father didn’t know wouldn’t get him- or anyone else- into trouble.

Now, of course, everything would have to come out into the open. He had finally found his soulmate, and he wasn’t going to stay away from her when he had the ability to become fully human. The very fact that merfolk and humans  _ could _ be soulmates meant the two species were related somewhere down the line- Adrien suspected those unions had a lot to do with how merfolk kept their ability to transform their tails to legs.

It meant he had to prove the soulbond, though. He would have anyway, even with a mer soulmate, but with a human, it was even more important that the bond be witnessed. That was why he’d asked for this meeting- and then asked Chloe to stay. First he had to tell Marinette about their bond, since she obviously didn’t know, and then ask if she would agree to confirm it. With merfolk, soul scales luminesced the first time a soulmate touched them to confirm the bond- it was custom to wait until that first touch could be witnessed by others, so there were no doubts about the truth of the bond. 

He was nervous, though. He’d told her to bring a friend if she didn’t feel safe, and though he felt he could trust her- she  _ was _ his soulmate, after all- he wasn’t sure how her friend would feel about their new bond. For that matter, he didn’t know how Marinette would react to the knowledge. It would definitely come as a surprise, and he had to face the fact that it might not be a pleasant surprise for her.

He listened as the beach quieted with the twilight, the only sounds coming from seabirds, shorebirds, and the water itself, endlessly washing the shore and slapping up against the rocks. The fire kept him warm, and he eventually moved the pot of crabs to the edge of the fire to keep it from scorching, then placed a flat stone at a convenient distance to put the food on once they arrived. After that, all he could do was wait.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette, Alya, and Nino meet up with Adrien. Talk is had, concerns are raised, and a decision made.

The moon had risen by the time he heard the sounds he’d been waiting for- human voices, coming closer to the arch. Adrien got up and had to restrain himself from running over to meet them. Instead he slid the salmon pan onto the fire, then walked that way to peek around the edge of the arch, though. To his surprise, he saw not two silhouettes, but three. Concern hit him for a minute- what if this wasn’t Marinette at all, but some other group of humans? 

The group came closer and he retreated to the fire, sitting where he could see the group if they came under the arch. His heart lifted as the first one to step under the arch  _ was _ Marinette. A moment later, another woman joined her, this one darker skinned with thick hair that seemed to get brighter in color at the ends. She had a small dark dot on her forehead above her right eye. Adrien wondered if that was her soulmate mark. The other person with them was a man, also darker skinned. He had some kind of covering on his head, but Adrien was relieved to see that the rest of his clothing was much the same as Adrien’s. Not that he didn’t trust Chloe, but it was nice to know his trust was justified. He stood to greet them, his nervousness multiplied by the unexpected presence of another male.

Was Marinette, perhaps, already partnered? He took a deep, quick breath- surprised, as always, by how little effort it took- and nearly choked, as he had earlier that afternoon. He reminded himself to breathe slower, and managed to swallow the urge to cough. Instead, he raised his right hand in greeting as they got closer. Even without his scales, he could feel prickling starting up across his cheeks and nose. Marinette frowned and he saw her scratch the same places on her own face. He suppressed the urge to jump up and down for joy at this confirmation that she really was his soulmate.

Instead he focused on how different it was to interact with her- or anyone- when he had legs. It was strange- his head was up higher than most of them, though the other man’s was almost as high. Marinette and the other woman’s heads were both lower than his, with Marinette being the lowest. It was… odd. Length of body didn’t really matter much to merfolk, except as a rough way to judge the age and/or strength of someone. To be so much higher than them when in his human form left him feeling uncertain.

“Hello, Marinette,” he said, smiling and trying to ignore the prickling. He almost made the customary sign of joyful greeting, but realized they wouldn’t know what he meant and stopped himself. “And hello to your friends as well.”

“H-hi,” Marinette said, staring up at him while her friends nodded briefly and did the same. Her hand rose up halfway to her face before she stopped herself, and she glanced at him. Her eyes shone in the firelight, and he saw curiosity and hesitance in her expression. “I didn’t expect…” she trailed off, looking down.

“-me to have legs?” Adrien finished, laughing a little to cover his nervousness. “It’s not something we talk about much. Especially not with humans.” He bit his lip briefly. “Will you introduce your friends?”

Marinette jumped a little. “Oh! I’m sorry.” She touched the other woman’s shoulder. “This is my best friend Alya Cesaire, and this is her boyfriend and my friend, Nino Lahiffe,” she said, touching the man next. “They’re soulmates. Alya, Nino, this is Adrien, the mer who rescued me today.”

Adrien nodded to them both and smiled. He was relieved to find the two others paired together. It still wasn’t clear if Marinette was in a relationship with another human, but at least she hadn’t brought a potential rival to this meeting. Blinking, he reminded himself that she had the right to refuse the bond...

“Well,” Adrien said, “come and sit down! I cooked some food, so if you’re hungry...”

He waved an open hand toward the large piece of driftwood he’d hauled beside the fire, and the salmon and crabs. He noticed that they all moved a little slowly with much shuffling, tight smiles, and no talking. The man called Nino sat down first, eyeing him up and down before taking the seat closest to the food. 

Adrien stopped himself from objecting. He’d made the food for  _ Marinette _ , and as he saw the other woman- Alya- sitting down next Nino, he was torn between asking them to move over and being relieved that Marinette wasn’t sitting next to Nino, whatever she’d said about soulmates. 

“You know, we’re not supposed to light fires on the beach without a permit, du- uh, Adrien,” Nino said, a bit stiffly.

“Don’t worry,” Adrien said, “it’s well hidden, and it’s not going to catch anything else on fire.”

“Yeah, I… don’t think that’s what they’re worried about,” Nino said. 

Adrien didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just smiled and got up to check that the salmon wasn’t burning. He had toughened the skin on his hands earlier, so he didn’t hesitate to grab the handle of the pan. He jumped back when he heard three hisses close to him, nearly dumping the whole pan into the fire. In the ocean, hisses never meant anything good. It took him only a second to realize that it was the  _ humans _ hissing at him, and when he looked at them, they all wore nearly identical grimaces.

The handle felt warm in his grip but it wasn’t burning him, so their painful expressions struck him as funny. He chuckled, both at himself and at them, deftly flipped the salmon over with a wooden spatula and put the pan back on the fire, then checked the crabs. They needed  _ just  _ a little longer, he judged. He turned the pot so they would cook evenly, then sat back down.

“So,” Marinette said, clearing her throat before resuming. “I’m assuming your hand is fine after grabbing that  _ very hot metal handle?” _

Adrien had to grin at that. “Yes, my hand is fine. I made the skin very thick, see?” 

He got up again, holding out his hand to Nino who, thus far, seemed to be the least happy about coming to meet him. Nino blinked at him, then reached out very hesitantly and touched the hardened calluses covering Adrien’s palm and fingers. His eyebrows rose. “Huh. Neat trick.”

“Can I feel it?” Alya asked, and Adrien’s smile widened at her enthusiasm. He held his hand out to her, barely feeling the light touch of her fingers. His eyes shifted to Marinette, silently asking if she wanted to touch him, too. He couldn’t quite tell, but it seemed her face got just a little redder in the firelight as she reached out and skimmed her fingers lightly over his palm. He found himself wishing she would touch his other, uncalloused hand that way, so that he could feel it more.

Feeling a little warm- probably from standing directly over the fire- he pulled his hand back, leaving the skin tough in preparation for handling the pot again. He noticed the prickling in his cheeks had redoubled.

To distract himself, he checked the salmon again and took it off the fire, only then realizing he didn’t know how to serve it to humans. He had no idea how humans usually ate, and he was only just now realizing that they might not want to eat with their hands, like merfolk did. Apparently they couldn’t change the thickness of their skin to protect against hot things...

The little hairs on the back of Adrien’s head rose in embarrassment and he smoothed them back down. Then he remembered that he’d seen something else in the bags that held the pot and the pan. He got up hurriedly and retrieved the bag. Sure enough, inside were large, almost flat clamshell halves, nested into each other and with the sharp edges ground down, as well as a few small metal tridents. There were only three each, but he was too nervous to eat right now anyway.

“So… I wanted to provide food, but… I didn’t think of how to serve it. Sorry. This is my first time eating with humans, and- well, you have my friend to thank for providing something to put your food on,” he said, passing the clamshells to Marinette, even though she was sitting the furthest away from the food. She took them with a bemused smile.

“This really is your first time, huh?” Nino said, realization growing in his face. Suddenly he smiled for the first time, wide and bright in the firelight. “Hey, don’t worry about it, dude. There’s a first time for everything, right? I’m sure it’ll taste great.”

Adrien smiled gratefully at him, then looked at the other two, Marinette in particular. She was smiling, but her eyes kept sliding away from his. Her cheeks were very red.

When he’d been swimming her back to shore, Adrien had flirted with her a little- as much as their limited interaction allowed for, anyway- but now his nervousness and the presence of her two friends prevented him.

“So this might be your first time eating with humans, but it isn’t your first time on land, is it?” Alya asked, while Adrien busied himself cutting the salmon into small portions with one of the wooden spoons. “I mean, you’re moving around pretty confidently…”

“Oh, it’s far from my first time on land,” he said, grateful to her for starting the conversation. “But it’s my first time on the mainland. The King doesn’t like anyone to come ashore, really, so I had to learn in secret, and it’s hard to sneak away for long. Mostly, a friend and I visited some tiny little islands to practice walking around.”

“But why in secret, dude? Isn’t this something everyone learns?”

“Well… my father is old-fashioned. He doesn’t really approve of merfolk and humans interacting, so he didn’t want me to learn how to split my tail.” Adrien shrugged. He could go into the politics of the merfolk court later on, when he knew them a bit better. For now, this should be enough.

“What about tonight, then? Why take the risk of being discovered just to meet with m-us?” Marinette finally asked, and Adrien looked up quickly.

“Tonight is a special occasion,” he said, catching and holding her gaze, and very aware of her swiftly lowered hand. She’d been rubbing her cheeks again. Marinette stared at him until Alya elbowed her in the side. Then she sort of choked on air and started coughing. Adrien couldn’t help smiling at that. Apparently it wasn’t just him- humans could choke on air, too.

“So tell us, dude, what’s so special about tonight?” Nino asked, getting up so he could put pieces of salmon on clamshells as Alya passed them to him. 

Adrien rubbed his hands on his knees, feeling more nervous than ever. “Well… if I remember correctly, Marinette said that you and Alya are soulmates, correct?”

“Yeah…”

“Merfolk have soulmates, too,” Adrien said, briefly glancing at Marinette. “And… well, I met mine today.”

Alya looked rapidly between him and Marinette, narrowing her eyes in consideration. Then her eyes blew wide and she said, “No. Way. No freakin’ way!”

Meanwhile, Marinette stared at him, wide-eyed while her face got redder and redder- this time Adrien was sure it wasn’t just reflected firelight or a sunburn. Suddenly, she ducked her head down to hide her face behind her arms.

“Alya!” he heard her faintly protest. “That’s not… it’s… it can’t be!”

Adrien bit his lip and looked down. This was why he’d been nervous- he was afraid Marinette might not take it well.

“I’m sorry if you’re not happy about it,” he said quietly. “But... honestly, I’m pleased to finally meet my soulmate, Marinette.”

Marinette’s head shot up and she stared at him. “Wha- no- I’m not-” she shook her head and tried again. “I’m sorry, I just don’t understand! I’ve  _ never _ had a soulmate mark! I  _ still _ don’t have a soulmate mark!”

Adrien couldn’t help but laugh at this. “You have soulmate marks all over your face!” he said, running his fingers over the tops of his own cheeks and nose, where his currently invisible soulmate scales prickled their awareness of his soulmate’s proximity. “How could you not know?”

All three of them stared at him for a moment, then Nino and Alya leaned over to look at Marinette as if they’d never seen her before.

“You mean, her freckles?” Nino asked dubiously.

“Is that what you call soulmate marks?” Adrien asked in his turn.

“No… lots of people have freckles- little dark marks on their skin. No one’s ever thought freckles were soulmate marks- at least, not that  _ I _ ever heard,” Alya said. “In school they said that freckles are caused by a concentration of pigment in the skin, instead of it being spread out all over.”

“But isn’t that what a human soulmate mark is?” Adrien asked again. Chloe had once told him that human soulmate marks were a lot more subtle than soulmate scales- they didn’t flash, or prickle, or anything- humans apparently had to “get a feeling” about someone and then compare marks without any other prompting.

Alya opened her mouth, then shut it again. “Huh.”

Adrien’s eyes flicked back to Marinette, who was now looking out between her fingers. Sighing, she finally dropped her hands and said, “This afternoon, out on the water, my… my  _ freckles _ were prickling.”

Adrien nodded, pleased that she was beginning to understand what had happened. “Yes, and they’re prickling now, aren’t they?”

Marinette visibly shivered. “Yes. It’s… it’s true, isn’t it? We r-really are s-soulmates.”

There was silence for a moment, then Alya spoke up. “Okay, I’m lost.  _ How _ do you know she’s your soulmate?”

Adrien sighed, but explained anyway- about how merfolk had special scales instead of marks on their skin, that they started prickling in the presence of a mer’s soulmate when the bond had not yet been acknowledged.

“So… how do you acknowledge the bond?” Nino asked. Both he and Alya were looking very serious, while Marinette simply looked fascinated.

“There’s a ritual. It’s very simple- you each touch each other’s soulmate scales, the scales luminesce for a moment, and then the bond is acknowledged, and the scales stop prickling. They don’t light up anymore either- it’s a one-time thing. But that’s why it needs to be witnessed, so no one can claim the bond isn’t real. It’s… actually why I told you you could bring someone along to this meeting,” Adrien said, turning directly to Marinette. “I was hoping I could convince you to acknowledge the bond tonight.”

“Wait,  _ tonight?” _ Marinette said, sitting bolt upright with wide eyes. “I- I…”

“You don’t have to! It’s alright if you want to wait!” Adrien assured her. “But the prickling will go on while we’re near each other until we do, so… if that bothers you…”

Marinette had been sitting with her chin in the palms of her hands, fingers pressed over her cheekbones, and now bit her lip and looked away.

“What happens if… if I refuse to acknowledge the bond… at all?” she asked, quietly. 

Adrien’s heart sank, but he took a deep breath and answered. “We go our separate ways. I won’t be part of your life and you won’t be part of mine.”

“And… if we do acknowledge the bond?”

Adrien swallowed and tried not to hope too much. “Then we stay together, learn about each other… live our lives together.” He glanced at her to see a small smile playing around her mouth. His heart leapt and an answering smile came to his own lips.

“Okay, woah,” Alya suddenly said, holding up both hands. “Just… slow down a minute here. I mean, you’re a mer and she’s a human! How is she supposed to make any kind of decision tonight? We know nothing about you! I mean, you’re a decent cook and this was all very sweet, but… before tonight, we didn’t even know merfolk could… split their tails into legs, or whatever. If you were human, it’d be one thing, but you’re not.”

“Alya, it’s okay,” Marinette said, taking one of Alya’s hands and holding it.

Nino bit his lip, then raised his hand with the first finger extended upwards. “Actually, I’m gonna have to back up my babe, here. You should take some time and think about this, Mari.” He cast a quick glance at Adrien, who was trying very hard not to feel rejected and remember that this response was expected. 

“No offense, dude, but Alya’s right- we don’t know you. And it’s not like, just because you’re soulmates with someone, that automatically means they’re a good person. Call me crazy, but I’m not wild about my best friend, someone I see as a sister, jumping into this with someone who, for all we know, wants to be the next conqueror of Europe.”

That last had Adrien blinking. “What’s Europe?” he asked.

Nino sighed and lifted his cap to run a hand over his head. “Europe is all the countries that make up this mainland, dude. And don’t think that just because you didn’t know the human name for it, it means you don’t have plans!”

“But I really don’t have plans!” Adrien protested. “I don’t even want to take over for my father, why would I want to-”

“See, but that’s the thing,” Alya interrupted. “You  _ say _ that, but how can we tell if you’re being honest?”

Marinette stood up, drawing all eyes to her. She had her hands on her hips and her expression was exactly like Nathalie’s when Adrien was being difficult about something he was supposed to be doing.

“Alya, Nino, can I talk to you for a second?” 

Alya and Nino looked at each other, then at him, then back to Marinette. 

“Sure, Marinette.”

“Yeah, let’s go... talk.”

The three of them left, and Adrien was left by the fire. He tried to tell himself that this was a good thing, because it meant Marinette’s friends cared about her. It didn’t help much. Nor did trying to imagine what it was they were saying to each other, since he could only imagine Marinette being swayed to her friends’ way of thinking. After all, it wasn’t as if they were exactly wrong- they  _ didn’t _ know him. He tried to put himself into their shoes, floating back and watching as Chloe blithely accepted a soulmate bond with a strange human. He had to admit… he would have concerns. He’d be happy for her, but… concerned. Disconsolate, he took a piece of salmon and began picking it apart to distract himself, eating little bits of it while he waited.

\----

“What is with you two?” Marinette hissed, as soon as they were back on the moonlit beach and out of earshot. “I’ve always wanted a soulmate, you both know that! And now I finally meet him, and this is how you react??”

“Yeah, but Mari, this isn’t a regular guy, okay?” Nino shot back. “It’s not like you can visit his home and talk to his friends and family about what kind of person he really is. Does he have brothers or sisters? You don’t know. Does he treat his parents well? You don’t know. Does he clean up after himself? You don’t know. Is he a second, ocean-born Napoleon, or Stalin, or god-forbid  _ Hitler? _ You don’t know! And you  _ won’t _ know, because it’s not like you can grow gills yourself and go find out!” He turned away, snatching the cap off his head and running a frustrated hand over his hair again.

“Okay, not that I don’t agree with you in principle- but babe, that was harsh,” Alya put in before Marinette had a chance to protest that entirely unmerited accusation.

“You’re telling me,” she grumbled. “Seriously, what’s wrong with him that you’re suddenly so against this?”

“From what we know of him?” Alya said. “Nothing. But again, that’s the thing, Marinette. We  _ don’t _ know much about him. And like Nino said, it’s not like we can find out without him, either. I’m pretty sure they don’t have cellphones in Atlantis, or whatever they call where they live. I admit, tonight he’s given me a good impression. But what if that’s all it is- an impression? What if he’s not really the good person he pretends to be?”

Marinette flung her hands up in frustration. “What is it about me that makes you so certain all of a sudden that  _ my soulmate _ must be some kind of, of serial killer, or closet dictator, or something?” To her continued frustration, she felt angry tears welling up. “I mean, come on! If a soulmate is supposed to complement the kind of person you already are, what does that say about your opinion of  _ me?” _

She folded her arms defensively and tried not to sniff as she willed the tears away again. She hated this tendency of hers to cry when she got mad, but she couldn’t help it. It hurt that they weren’t supporting this, supporting  _ her _ . She’d always dreamed about how wonderful it would be to meet her soulmate, and now this? Alya sighed and tried to hug her, but Marinette stepped away. 

“You know we don’t think that,” Alya said quietly, accepting her need for space. “And of course we don’t want your soulmate to be a serial killer, and to be honest, I don’t think it’s likely that Adrien  _ is _ a bad person. But come on, Mari… if he were human, you’d take your time, wouldn’t you? You’d get to know him, spend time with him- maybe a lot of time!- before making it official, wouldn’t you? Didn’t you tell me to do the same thing when Nino and I first met?”

It was Marinette’s turn to sigh. Nino had been facing away from them, but now he turned around, came closer and rested a hand on her shoulder. Again, Marinette shrugged away from it and he let it drop.

“Hey. We just want you to be safe, alright? Take a few days, think it over…  _ ask questions. _ This whole ritual he talked about just… it sounds so final. You know? Like, this is a  _ marriage level _ commitment, Mari. If any other one of your friends came up to you and said, “I’m marrying this dude I’ve known for all of half a day, please make me a dress,” would you really be on board with that?”

Marinette took a deep breath and tried not to let her voice betray her. “No. But… this is supposed to be so special, and a  _ happy _ occasion, and… you’re right! He’s not human, he’s a mer, but we’re only here until Sunday-”   
  


“So take that time and get to know him!” Alya urged. “It’s not a lot of time, but it’s better than nothing, right?”

“Do you have any idea how distracting it is to have pins and needles in your face, Alya?” Marinette grouched. “And from what he said, that’s not going to go away until we do this ritual of his. Besides, it doesn’t sound that bad! It’s just touching his soulmate scales- it’s nothing dangerous, it’s not even as intimate as kissing!”

“Yeah, but it’s  _ final.” _ Nino reiterated.

“Anytime you find your soulmate, it’s final,” Marinette scoffed, hurt feelings beginning to subside. “Even if you don’t stay with them, it’s not like you can forget that that person is your soulmate, Nino.”

Alya folded her arms and sighed again. “Okay, that’s a good point,” she said. “I don’t know, it’s just… for some reason it’s scary because he’s a mer, Marinette. I mean, yeah, I was super excited to meet him and ask some questions, but that was when this was a one-time thing. And now he’s going to be part of your life forever? We don’t know much about the merfolk, Marinette, and from what Adrien himself said, they kind of like it that way! So… how is this supposed to work?”

“... I don’t know,” Marinette admitted in a low voice. “But I’d like to at least give it a  _ chance _ , okay? So… why don’t we go back and start asking Adrien some of these questions.”

“Okay,” Alya said, tentatively reaching a hand out to her. This time Marinette grabbed it and squeezed.

“I know you guys don’t want me to get hurt. It’s just…” she stopped as the hurt rose up again. “I really wanted meeting my soulmate to be… happy.”

“We’re sorry, Marinette,” Nino said, “It’s really great that you finally have a soulmate. It’s just… well, Alya already said it. It’s not a normal situation, so it’s a little scary.”

Marinette nodded, but couldn’t keep back a sob this time. 

“Oh, honey,” Alya said, pulling her into a hug, while Marinette sniffed, trying to regain control of her emotions. “I’m sorry. I really am. We should have let you have your moment and talked to you later.”

“Yeah, what Alya said. I’m sorry, dudette,” Nino said, wrapping his arms around both of them. 

Marinette took a moment to cling to her two best friends. Then she pulled back and wiped her eyes and they all went back to the fire.

\----

Adrien stood up when he felt the prickles come back, relieved that they were actually returning and hadn’t decided to just leave.

“Hi again,” he said. He noticed that they all seemed uncomfortable with each other- Marinette wasn’t looking at anyone and seemed smaller somehow. Alya wasn’t smiling and also wouldn’t meet anyone’s eye. Nino’s hands had… disappeared? Adrien narrowed his eyes at that, focusing in on where his arms disappeared into his pants as a distraction. After a moment he shook his head- it was something he didn’t understand just yet and that was all there was to it.

“Is… everything alright?” he said instead.

Marinette took a kind of shaky breath. “Um… so can we ask you some questions about… all this?”

“Yes, of course,” he said, eager to agree. Anything to bring the mood back to the hopeful joy he’d seen in her eyes before her friends started airing their concerns.

“This ritual… is it like getting married?” was the first thing out of Nino’s mouth.

Adrien frowned. “I don’t think so. Married is when two people live together and raise a family, right? In a...” he searched for the word. “House?”

“Yeah, basically.”

“Then no. It’s just an acknowledgement of the soulmate bond. It’s up to the people involved to decide where the relationship goes from there.”

“Oh.” Nino let out a deep breath, looking liked he’d collapsed in on himself for a minute. “Sorry, Mari,” he mumbled.

Marinette just nodded, still not quite meeting anyone’s eyes. Adrien was starting to wonder why her friends shortened her name- and if he would ever be allowed that privilege.

“Where…” Alya started, then cut herself off. “I’m sorry, but… where would you live? If you stayed together I mean.”

Adrien raised his eyebrows and gestured broadly to their surrounds. “Here? Isn’t this where you live?” he asked Marinette directly.

Marinette shook her head, bracing her arms against the log as she sat there. “No, we’re just here for a few days. We- I- live in Paris. It’s a large city built by a river we call the Seine, and it’s… quite a ways inland.”

“Oh.” Adrien pursed his lips. That was unexpected. He hadn’t even considered that his soulmate might not live on the coast somewhere. Still, if there was a river… “Well, we can figure something out, I’m sure,” he said. “I can’t just abandon the enclave, but some time away wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe we could go back and forth? One week here, one week there?”

He watched them shoot worried looks at each other. 

“Adrien,” Marinette said, sounding as worried as she looked. “I’m in school. We’re on a break right now, but classes start again on Monday, and I have to be there! And if I’m not there I lose my scholarship and then I couldn’t afford to go  _ back _ , and I wouldn’t graduate and then I’d  _ never _ find a job and become a designer, and-” 

Alya cut her off with an arm wrapped around her shoulders and a soft calming noise. Adrien didn’t blame her. Marinette’s voice had risen with every new idea, and though Adrien didn’t understand some of the words she used, he understood that taking these classes was very important to her.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “That won’t work then.” He thought for a minute. “You said you’re on a break now… how long is the break and how often do they happen?”

Marinette breathed and said, “Um, the summer break- that’s the one that’s ending- is about eight weeks long. That’s the longest one. But there’s usually four weeks over Christmas,” she cast him a look. “I guess you don’t know about Christmas, but that’s also around the time of the winter solstice- the shortest day, longest night of the year.”

Adrien nodded to show he understood the time of the break.

“Then classes resume for about eight weeks, then there’s a one week break, and then another eight weeks of classes.”

Adrien’s eyebrows rose again. “What are you learning that takes that much time?” he wondered. It seemed a ridiculous amount of time to spend in classes, especially since they were all adults.

“It’s fashion design,” Marinette said. “It’s... basically making clothes that look really good on people- all kinds of clothes, though my focus is on what women wear.”

“Oh.” Adrien cast a glance downward, wondering whether his own clothing looked good on him. He heard a snort from Nino and looked up to see him hiding a smile.

“You look fine, dude,” Nino said, waving a hand at him in a gesture Adrien didn’t quite understand. Adrien felt himself flushing for some reason, and decided to ask a question of his own. 

“Are you the only one taking these classes, or are all of you taking them together?”

“We’re all in school,” Alya said. “I’m learning journalism.”

“What’s that?”

“Um, reporting- that’s either writing down the news or doing interviews with people- so everyone knows what’s going on in the world.”

Adrien frowned, still not quite understanding the concept. “Okay. What about you, Nino?”

“I’m studying both music and film. I’m taking some acting classes on the side, but I actually want to direct. On the weekends, I’m usually DJing for some party on campus.”

Adrien stared at him. “I… only understood the words that aren’t really important there, I think,” Adrien said, beginning to get a little worried. He knew the language, so why couldn’t he understand what they were talking about?

“Hey man, it’s alright,” Nino said, “Half the time I don’t understand it myself. Language is weird- it shifts and grows. My old- my parents are always saying how they don’t understand what me and my brother say.”

Adrien sighed. “This… is going to be a lot more complicated than I thought, isn’t it?” He tried to catch Marinette’s eye, but she was looking down at her lap.

“Yeah, but don’t worry,” Alya said, actually smiling at him again, although not with the excitement she’d shown before. “You’ve already managed to convince me that you’re not a bad person who’s only pretending to be a good one.”

A silence fell then, one that Adrien broke by quietly asking, “How long are you staying?”

“We were going to stay today, tomorrow, and head back in the afternoon of the next day,” Marinette said, in a small voice. “It’s not a lot of time, I know, but…”

“Okay. Please, take all the time you need to think about… about acknowledging our bond. Even if it takes longer than these few days, I can-”

“No.”

“No?” Adrien gulped. Had she already decided to leave him behind? Not to complicate her life trying to accomodate his needs?

“I mean, we don’t have to wait for that,” Marinette said, finally looking at him with a small smile. “There’s no reason to, now that I know it’s  _ not _ essentially the same thing as getting married.” She said the last with a sideways glance at Nino, who pulled his cap down over his face.

“Really?” Adrien asked, allowing some of his relief to show.

“Yes, really.” 

She stood up, biting her lip. “So… how do we do this?”

Adrien stood too, wiping his damp palms on his legs. “Ah… well, I need to have my tail back for this, so… um. I’m not sure how humans feel about… seeing each other? And you, you’re not wearing the same clothes you were wearing earlier when you were in the water, so…”

“... are you saying we have to do this in the water?” Marinette cast a glance at the slowly rising tide.

“Basically, yes.”

“Great!” Alya said, grinning from ear to ear again, and elbowing Marinette, who was looking quite red again. “That means you get a preview, girl!”

“Alya!” Marinette hissed, grabbing her friend’s arm. “Okay,” she said, still flushed. “We’ll, um, go around the bend so you can transform then, alright?”

“Yes, thank you!” Adrien said a bit too loudly, then winced. Alya and Nino exchanged amused glances, but thankfully said nothing. Adrien watched them disappear around the bend, then got the waterproof bag his clothes had been in and quickly shed them, stuffing them inside without much regard. Then he slipped into the water in one smooth motion, shivering from the sudden change in temperature. After a few minutes he grew used to it and could concentrate enough to transform. 

His legs melded, the bones in his feet dissolved and turned into flukes, and his spine lengthened to merge with his former leg bones. Muscles grew and rearranged themselves in his lower half, and scales covered the skin of his tail. He was perfectly comfortable in the water now, not even a hint of a chill. 

Adrien went ahead and let the transformation progress, ducking his head underwater as his airway diverged and separated from the path to his stomach, his nose subtly changed to allow his nostrils to pinch shut when needed, and gills appeared on his sides between the bones of his ribcage. His spine protruded into a ridge, and his fingernails grew and thickened into stubby claws while webbing crawled up between his fingers. Then the scales emerged, further insulating his top half from the water. They were tiny compared to the ones on his tail, but still tougher than skin.

Adrien opened his pinched nostrils and took a deep draw of water, acclimatizing to the slower delivery of oxygen. After a few breaths he was used to it again and swam out to the outcropping to meet Chloe.

Chloe was busy shaping her claws into pleasing points with a bit of broken coral, but she dropped it and let it sink when she saw him coming.

<<Did she run away?>> she signed, hands moving gracefully. Her eyes were narrowed in apparent malicious amusement. Adrien knew she was trying to cover up anxiety on his behalf, but it hit a little too close to the truth, so he rolled his eyes and threw her a rude gesture. 

Then he signed back, <<No, she didn’t. In fact, after a few questions, she agreed to the bonding tonight.>>

To his surprise, Chloe launched herself at him, hugging him almost fiercely. Then she backed up and signed. <<I’m happy for you. Even if she is a human.>>

Adrien felt his mouth stretch into a tight smile. His lips weren’t as mobile as when he was in air-breathing transformation, but they still had some movement. <<Thanks, Chloe. Now come on, they’re waiting for us.>>

\----

Marinette shivered from nerves as she, Alya, and Nino waited for some sign that it was alright to go back to the fire. As simple as it sounded, this ritual was completely outside her experience. People meeting their soulmates usually just compared their marks and that was it, no rituals involved. Not to mention that she hadn’t worn a swimsuit, not expecting to go swimming this late. Luckily, the water shouldn’t be that cold, and her underwear covered more than many swimsuits she’d seen, even if it was a bit less than the swimsuit she’d worn earlier in the day.

Alya sidled up beside her just as Nino reached out and squeezed her shoulder. They didn’t say anything, though, which was nice. They’d had their say earlier, and she was grateful they weren’t trying to talk her out of it again.

Nino patted one shoulder and Alya bumped the other. After a few minutes they heard the call to come back, so Alya and Nino went back around the bend so Marinette could shed her outer clothes in semi-private. Once she was down to her underwear, Marinette bundled her shirt and pants together- feeling very much like she was gathering her courage at the same time- and rejoined them, spotting two blonde heads in the water at the edge of the rock one with short hair, the other long and trailing into the water. As she’d noticed before, their hair was strangely voluminous, even though it was wet.

Marinette pushed down her nervous shyness, put her clothes on the driftwood log, and went to join Alya and Nino at the water’s edge. Adrien gave her a little wave and a smile, though she noticed that the other mer- who seemed to be a female- looked her up and down with a neutral expression. Both of them were breathing air which made her feel irrationally better about all this.

“Okay, so… should I just get in the water, then?” she asked, crouching down so they didn’t have to crane their heads up so much. 

“Well first, I’d like to introduce you all to my friend Chloe.” Adrien said, putting one hand on the other mer’s shoulder. “We basically grew up together and she’s one of my closest friends. She’ll be my witness for this. Chloe, this is my soulmate, Marinette,” Marinette nodded and smiled at Chloe, “and her friends Alya and Nino.”

Chloe nodded back to them all, but didn’t say anything. Marinette didn’t miss the surprised look Adrien cast at his friend when she stayed silent, but then he looked back at her and held out his hand. Marinette felt the butterflies in her stomach take wing, and her cheeks prickled madly as she took his hand. She sat down on the edge of the rock, then pushed herself into the water before she could think about it. Her skin immediately rose up in goosebumps. Still, Adrien’s hands steadied her, and she hesitantly put her own hands on his shoulders. His skin felt cool under her fingers.

Adrien smiled at her, and she tried to return it, but her teeth started chattering. The water wasn’t really cold, but it was still cool, and combined with her nervousness… well. They stayed that way for a minute, just staring at each other. Marinette wondered what was going to happen. Then an unfamiliar voice broke the relative silence.

“Come  _ on _ , Adrifins, we don’t have all night.”

Marinette looked over Adrien’s shoulder at Chloe, to see her leaning on the rock ledge with one arm, the other hand obviously on her hip, though it was underwater and she couldn’t see it.

Adrien huffed a self-conscious laugh. “Sorry, Chloe.” He didn’t let go though and Marinette suppressed another shiver. 

“I need to bring the soul scales out for a moment, alright?” he said gently. “But before I do that … do you want to touch my scales, or should I touch your freckles, or would you like to do it together?”

“I th-think… together,” Marinette said, trying to keep from shivering as she treaded water. Her foot brushed against his tail and it was the strangest feeling in the world.

Adrien gave her a warm smile and reached out to squeeze one of her hands. “Okay. Don’t worry, this won’t take long. Just a moment or two more, and then you can get out and get warm. And Marinette?” He caught her eyes and held them. “Thank you.”

She smiled at him, and then he ducked under the surface. It was too dark to see the transformation this time, but he was right- it didn’t take long. The feel of his hands on her sides changed, and then his head popped back up, nostril firmly pinched. He gently tugged her closer to the rock’s edge so Alya, Nino, and Chloe could all see. Marinette clutched the edge with one hand to steady them both. 

Adrien held up four webbed fingers and silently counted down. When his last finger fell, Marinette reached out and touched his smooth, scaled cheek at the same time as smooth fingers touched her own face, tracing the path of her freckles.

Tiny blue lights flared across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and the prickling in her own cheeks faded to nothing. At the same time, warmth flowed through her like a wave of relaxation and she stopped shivering. Then Adrien closed his eyes and this time Marinette could see the subtle transformation in the firelight as the scales sank back down into skin and his nostrils opened.

His eyes opened again and he took a slow breath. “Thank you, Marinette,” he said again, softly this time.

“O-of course,” Marinette stuttered, suddenly aware of how close he was. “We’re soulmates, and we don’t have much time. What’s the point in waiting?”

“I would have, if you’d asked me to,” Adrien assured her. For a moment his smile seemed to encompass the whole world, and she found herself smiling back.

“As nice as all this is, at this rate we won’t make it back before midnight,” Chloe said, shattering the moment.

Marinette started shivering again and pulled away, embarrassed for no reason she could name, and Adrien let go, turning toward his friend. Marinette hauled herself back up onto the rock ledge with Alya’s help.

“I’m sorry, Chloe. Thank you for waiting.”

“Sure. You still have to tell your parents, though.  _ I’m _ certainly not going to break the news to Uncle Gabe,” she said, rather pointedly.

“Of course not. I’ll be ready to leave shortly.”

“Leave?” Marinette asked, out of the water with Alya’s help. She turned to see Adrien staring up at her with a rueful expression.

“I didn’t want to tell my parents about you until after the bond was confirmed,” he admitted. “Now that Chloe can be my witness, I should really tell them as soon as possible.”

“Oh,” Marinette said, realizing for the first time since Adrien told her they were soulmates that she was going to have to call her own parents. “Do you, um, want to meet me tomorrow morning? To… get to know each other?” she asked.

Adrien’s smile brightened. “Yes! I can be here by mid-morning, and meet you on the beach?”

“That sounds good,” Marinette said, relieved that he was making it so easy. “Should I, um… maybe wear a swimsuit?”

Adrien blinked. “A what?”

Marinette opened her mouth, then closed it again, embarrassed again. Chloe swam up to Adrien and flicked his ear.

“Ow! What was that for?” Adrien said, pulling away from her. Chloe tossed her hair and looked up at Marinette. 

“Don’t mind him, he’s just incredibly ignorant. And yes, wear a swimsuit. See you tomorrow!” And with that, she unceremoniously dunked Adrien under the water, then submerged herself. 

Neither of them came back up.

Marinette stared out at the moonlit water beyond the arch and sighed. Then she went back over to the fire to warm up and maybe dry out a little before putting her clothes back on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooooly crap this was long! But I didn't want to break up the flow. So. Sorry for the uber long chapter, but at least now their bond is confirmed and we can move forward from here!
> 
> ... did I mention this is *slow burn* fic? Emphasis on the *slow.*


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Marinette break the news to their parents.

Adrien swam swiftly, keeping up with Chloe’s leaner form easily due to his more powerful tail. In his mind he rehearsed what he was going to say. Admittedly, breaking the news of his human soulmate to someone as traditional as King Gabriel wasn’t going to be easy. He was hoping his father would still be awake, actually, because if he could break the news tonight and his father got angry, at least most of the enclave would be spared a display of his temper.

It was too bad his mother wouldn’t be there to keep him in check- Gabriel almost never blew up at anyone, but he could freeze the water around someone with one look when he wanted to. But Emilie was off visiting the nearest enclave to the south with a few friends- something she did about twice a year, for both diplomatic and personal reasons. She had family there, and she usually treated it as more of a vacation than anything political.

He and Chloe took turns echolocating, keeping a watch on their surroundings and their path for obstacles or potential predators. Most feral sharks and whales left merfolk alone, but there were always rash or desperate or young ones to watch out for, not to mention possibly swimming. They didn’t pay much attention to the schools of fish they passed- that is, until Adrien’s stomach started grumbling.

Belatedly he remembered that all he’d eaten was that one piece of salmon, and he’d used up a lot of energy transforming so much. His body wasn’t used to it. Adrien clicked at Chloe, who slowed down. It was too dark now to see signs, so Adrien used standard touch and click signals, and they worked out a plan. They resumed their journey, but a little slower and keeping up a constant echolocation. 

Chloe was the one who located the school first, and also the one to make the first kill, darting after the fish with barely a click to alert Adrien. He wasn’t far behind though, neatly grabbing a fish for himself. They ate as they swam, dropping the bones, fins, and other inedibles along their path for bottom feeders to feast upon.

Chloe had been right- it was nearing midnight when they made it back to the enclave- but the bioluminescent life the merfolk carefully tended lit their way. Adrien eyed the royal pavilion, a domed structure built out of fallen rocks glued together with mainland cement and the help of various bivalves, but it was empty and dark. So was the cave his parents had claimed as their own living space. The large informal gathering cave still had lights burning though, so on a hunch Adrien headed there. On the whole, he would rather stay up all night arguing with his father about Marinette than risk being delayed leaving in the morning.

They swam into the familiar blue-ish-green light of the plankton lamps mounted to the sides of the community cave, looking around for his father. King Gabriel had a habit of lingering there after most everyone else was already gone and asleep. He always said he was taking care of last minute business when he did this, but Adrien didn’t know what kind of business he could be taking care of… other than treaties with the humans and other mer enclaves, there wasn’t much official business that he knew of. Within the enclave, Gabriel mostly dealt with personal disputes over fishing rights or pets that became nuisances. At least, that was the impression Adrien had always gotten from the remarks he made.

Gabriel was indeed still there, though they met him pretty close to the entrance, indicating he was almost ready to leave for the night.

Upon seeing Adrien he sent out no more than an acknowledging series of clicks. Adrien quickly signed <<I need to speak with you, Father.>>

Gabriel hesitated before signing back. <<Can’t it wait til morning? I was about to go to sleep.>>

Adrien’s lips lifted a little in a stiff smile as he risked a tease. <<You know you never sleep as well without Mother. And I’m leaving again pretty early myself. It’s important.>>

<<Leaving again? You were gone all day, you come back very late, and now you’re leaving again? What did you do, find a new pod of dolphins you’re trying to train?>>

<<No, but I did find my soulmate.>>

Gabriel jerked back reflexively, but quickly stabilized himself. <<That is indeed important news.>> He glanced at Chloe before signing <<Follow me, then. We can discuss this in the air.>>

Adrien looked at Chloe as Gabriel swam past them. She punched his shoulder and threw him the sign for courage before they both followed him. Gabriel led the way to the cave the enclave used to teach young mer the air breathing transformation and human languages. There was a bubble of air at the top of it that was religiously renewed every day by teams of adolescents working in tandem to bring fresh air from the surface using special waterproof baskets. Usually the enclave tried to find a cave that had a natural air shaft to supply the teaching caves, but that wasn’t always possible.

They all swam up to the air bubble and transformed. The air smelled a little stale, but it wasn’t too bad- they could talk for a while without suffering any harm. Adrien felt his stomach rumble again- he really wasn’t used to all this transforming, and knew he would have to eat again before being able to sleep.

“Adrien,” Gabriel said, very solemn. “You found your soulmate?”

“Yes,” Adrien said, taking a slow deep breath before plunging in. “Her name is Marinette, and… she’s human.”

Gabriel stilled for a moment as Adrien regarded him with hopeful neutrality. 

“Human?” Gabriel said, remaining neutral himself.

“Yes.”

“I see. May I ask how you encountered her?”

Adrien smiled at the implied criticism. By his father’s logic, he never should have met Marinette since he shouldn’t have been anywhere near the mainland. Of course, by that logic, things like fishing boats and the big ocean liners didn’t exist. Although, now that Adrien thought of it, Gabriel had always been careful to establish their enclaves well out of the path of normal boat traffic. 

“I was swimming one of the far patrols when my soulmate scales alerted me,” Adrien began, continuing to tell the story in as few words as possible. He explained about making arrangements to meet her on the mainland, and asking Chloe for help.

“After some discussion and questions, Marinette agreed to acknowledge the bond, which we did,” Adrien finished. “Chloe witnessed it. Then we left, since it was already getting late.”

Gabriel had listened to it all with narrowed eyes and folded arms, which wasn’t exactly encouraging… but was honestly a much better reaction than the one Adrien had feared. Still, Adrien found himself wishing again that his mother were here.

“Well,” Gabriel finally said. “It could be worse, I suppose, though Emilie will be insufferably smug for a while. She always said your soulmate would turn out to be a human, if only to spite me.” He smiled and paused for a moment, giving Adrien ample time to gape in astonishment. “What? You didn’t seriously expect me to oppose this, did you? It’s not ideal- and I’m  _ not _ thrilled that you revealed our ability to grow legs to three humans at the same time. However, yours is by no means the first soulmate bond between merfolk and humans. Now, what do you plan to do next? With a human as a soulmate, and especially not one living on the coast, things will be… complicated. Especially now that the humans have so many ways of spreading information quickly.” 

Gabriel stared at the cave wall with unfocused eyes, an expression Adrien had seen many times when his father was trying to solve a tricky problem. He was tempted to ask about it, but Gabriel suddenly focused back on him, and he blinked, remembering there was a question to answer. 

“Uh… well, I was going to meet with her tomorrow morning, and spend the day with her. I’ll spend the night off shore, then meet her again the next day. She and her friends don’t live on the coast, apparently. They are only here for a few days and planned to leave again by afternoon of the day after tomorrow.” Adrien said. “They live inland- a place called Paris, if I remember- and they are all in schooling for their future careers and have to return for classes.”

Gabriel nodded thoughtfully. “I have heard of Paris- some of our spies have travelled that far inland, and I understand it’s a seat of the human government. It’s apparently quite a large city, and there is a river… though they say it rarely runs clean.” 

He grimaced at that, and Adrien found himself echoing the expression. He was eager to learn about humans, but one thing he wasn’t looking forward to was witnessing pollution as it happened.

“Well. It will be tricky, but I’m sure you’ll be able to work out a plan, and if you can’t, let me know. I might have a few suggestions. I do  _ strongly _ advise you to keep yourself secret to all except those who already know. The fewer humans who know we can form legs, the better.”

Adrien felt a huge smile cross his face and without warning, he lunged forward to hug his father. He didn’t often do so- Gabriel didn’t encourage displays of affection- but this time he couldn’t resist. He’d been so worried that his father would be unreasonable about this development… perhaps he should have had more faith in his good sense. He was the King, after all, and no one became King without being level-headed enough to deal with unexpected situations calmly and coolly.

After a moment, Gabriel unbent enough to awkwardly pat him on the back. Adrien pulled back when he heard Chloe coo mockingly and give an exaggerated sniff.

“Is Chloe going with you in the morning?” Gabriel asked, floating back to put a little more space between them. Adrien didn’t care, though, he was too happy with his father’s easy acceptance. 

“Of course I am,” Chloe said, crossing her own arms. “Adrien wouldn’t be able to pass as human without me. I’m sure Marinette and her friends are very nice, but they don’t know how to handle him like I do.”

Adrien shot her a grateful look. He had been thinking about how likely it was that he would make a fool of himself on land, given his stunning lack of experience.

“Very well,” Gabriel said,  _ very _ dryly and distinctly  _ not _ mentioning the fact that Chloe should have been in the same position as Adrien, as far as not having experience on land went. “I can see all my strictures on your visits to the mainland aren’t working… perhaps I’ll just have to make you an official spy and try to control your activities that way.”

Chloe smirked. Adrien snickered. And, for the fourth surprise of the night, Gabriel actually smiled as well!

“Now, it is quite late, and if you’re leaving early, I suggest you get to sleep, Adrien,” Gabriel said. “You too, Chloe. And don’t forget to let your soulmate know she is welcome to visit anytime. I will be happy to give her a temporary tail. I confess I’m quite curious about her, and I know your mother will want to meet her as well.”

“Thank you, father,” Adrien said, head reeling with a combination of joy and exhaustion. Without another word, he returned to water-breathing and sought out his own small cave.

\----

Nino and Alya remained pretty silent after Adrien and his friend had left, only talking when there was something practical to address, like tending the fire or dealing with the leftover food. 

Marinette had to admit there wasn’t much to say. Not yet, anyway. The same problems they’d already brought up still existed, and there wasn’t much point in talking about them when Adrien wasn’t there to answer questions. So between them, they ate most of the rest of the food while Marinette let her underwear dry out a bit, then dumped the remainder in the fire. Alya took the pot, pan, and clamshells to the edge of the water and rinsed them. Without soap or anything to wash with, there wasn’t much else they could do for them, so they just put them back in the net bags Adrien and Chloe had left behind to wash later. After a little argument, they took the bags with them, since no one wanted to explain that they must have washed away with the tide. Then they doused the fire and left.

When they got back to the hotel, Marinette excused herself and found the roof access. She wanted to call her parents and didn’t want anyone else to overhear this conversation. Adrien had said that humans typically didn’t know about the mer ability to grow legs, so while she didn’t feel comfortable keeping him a secret from her parents, she didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else overhearing that and spreading it around. The merfolk obviously had a reason for keeping it secret, and she would be a poor soulmate if she didn’t at least try to think ahead.

It was late by that point, and she knew her parents would already be in bed, but… she didn’t want to wait. Her mom picked up on the fourth ring- right before it would have gone to voicemail.

“Marinette?” Sabine said, sounding hazy with sleep. “What’s wrong? Why are you calling so late? Has something happened? Do we need to come pick you up?” With every question, she sounded more alert. Marinette repressed a laugh, reminding herself to stay quiet. If someone had their room window open below, she didn’t want them to overhear.

“I’m sorry, Maman, I know you were sleeping,” she said, hoping her happy tone would reassure her mother. She’d had time to get over the hurt that Alya and Nino’s suspicion had called up, and some of the joy of finding her soulmate had returned. Even if the situation was complicated, she was still happy.

“It’s just,” she continued. “I couldn’t wait to call and let you know. … I found my soulmate today.”

A gasp on the other end, followed by a distant, “Tom! Tom wake up!” made her grin. Then Sabine’s voice returned. “Marinette that’s so wonderful! Who is it? What are they like? Where do they live?”

Marinette couldn’t help but laugh, but kept it quiet. “Oh Maman, we’ve hardly had a chance to talk! I don’t know anything about him except his name yet. His name is Adrien and… Maman, I have to ask you and papa to keep this a secret okay? I mean really. You can tell anyone you want to that I found my soulmate, you can even tell them his name, but you can’t tell anyone else what I’m about to tell you, alright?”

“What’s this?” came her father’s voice, deeper and rougher with sleep. “What kind of secret could  _ your _ soulmate have?” Marinette felt a little spark of warmth inside at that. At least her parents didn’t automatically assume her soulmate might be a terrible person at heart.

“Well… he’s not human. He’s merfolk,” Marinette said. She held her breath, but there was silence on the other end. When it stretched too long, Marinette said, “Maman? Papa? Are you still there?”

“Yes, we’re here,” Sabine’s voice came back, sounding unsure. “Marinette are you sure about that?”

“Oh, I’m very sure,” Marinette said. “I’ll tell you the full story later, but… remember that floating raft we brought only because it had an anchor weight so it wouldn’t drift away? Well, it broke. I ended up floating pretty far out to sea while I was asleep, and… well, Adrien found me. He brought me back to shore… I even had to fill out paperwork for the local council because a mer rescued me!”

When her parents remained silent, Marinette’s joy faded again. “Listen, I know you probably have some concerns, but I promise you it’s alright. We… we don’t have anything figured out yet, but we’re going to spend this weekend trying to find solutions for, you know, the obvious difficulties. I promise, it’s going to be fine. I just… I wanted to tell you. And I didn’t want to keep his origin from you.”

A long sigh came from the other end. “Alright Marinette. I guess we trust you to do the right thing. Just… be careful, alright?”

“I will. I love you both,” Marinette said. They said their goodbyes and hung up. Marinette stayed on the roof a little longer, staring at the stars she hardly ever got to see in Paris, and dreaming about her future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it turns out that I thought I had already posted this chapter... sorry for the super long wait between updates! You'll get two today, because this one was written last week, and I just forgot to post it!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe gives Adrien some tips, and Adrien and Marinette begin the process of getting to know each other.

Adrien was up early despite the late night, too excited about spending the whole day with his soulmate to sleep any more. When Chloe had stated her intention of going with him the night before, he’d been grateful. But he’d also been very tired, worn out from transforming so much, and anxious about breaking the news to Gabriel. 

With some rest, though, his natural confidence resurfaced. How hard could it really be to appear human among humans? He would have the same features, the same type and number of limbs… Chloe had already given him another waterproof bag with clothing for the day, so what was stopping him from simply leaving? He might beat Marinette to the meeting place, maybe even have a chance to test his skills among other humans first…

So he grabbed a hake from the enclave’s netted enclosure and made sure he had Chloe’s bag before leaving. Just as he was passing the first watch post, Chloe swam out in front of him. Adrien stopped, floating back with surprise quickly morphing into a sheepish grin.

<<Not so fast, Adrifins>> She signed, gently mocking him with her movements. <<Did you really think I wouldn’t know you’d try to sneak out early? Honestly, it’s like we haven’t even been friends for fifteen years. But then your memory has always been crap.>> She was smirking, but from the sudden choppiness, Adrien could tell she was anxious. Probably about her own place in his life. Not for the first time, Adrien wished her parents were anyone other than his father’s two self-absorbed advisors, Audrey and Andre.

So he smiled. <<Hey, I knew you could catch up! Besides, it can’t be  _ that _ hard to pretend I’ve always been human. Like last night- I could see Alya and Nino didn’t quite believe me about being mer until they saw me transformed.>>

Chloe rolled her eyes. <<I love you, but you know  _ nothing _ about being human. You’d give yourself away the first time someone caught you staring at them using some human thing you’ve never seen before.>>

Adrien was about to retort when he paused. Chloe had a point. He hadn’t even considered how humans would handle and eat hot food last night until confronted with the fact that they couldn’t make the skin of their hands tougher. There was bound to be a lot that he didn’t know and couldn’t even imagine.

<<Okay,>> he reluctantly admitted. <<You have a point. But how long is it going to take for me to learn? Marinette leaves again tomorrow.>> Adrien signed, making the motions of her name a caress and including the little flourish that indicated it was a proper noun instead of just meaning ‘of the sea.’

<<Ugh, you are such a romantic. But don’t worry- instead of teaching you everything  _ I _ know about humans, I’m just going to give you tips to avoid drawing attention from the people around you. You can learn the rest on your own.>>

<<That’s a relief. Can we do this while we swim, though?>> Adrien asked. It was still early, but he really wanted to be moving and he would probably pay better attention if he wasn’t anxious about being late.

<<I don’t know, can you swim and talk at the same time?>> Chloe threw back at him, before shooting off in the direction of the mainland. Adrien felt his chest spasm in silent laughter and took off after her. 

It didn’t take long to catch up, and Chloe slowed down when he did, swimming slower than normal so that they  _ could _ talk. It turned out she hadn’t been lying- she had all kinds of tips and tricks. 

  * If you see something that looks crazy or interesting, look away, then look back multiple times instead of staring. Try to find someone else doing or using the same thing, then search for that again in a different place. Eventually, you’ll start to recognize what’s normal and what’s not.



  * Ask Marinette or her friends quietly about whatever you want to know that seems odd or strange. Don’t point at people or things.



  * Humans have three things they use to eat, a fork for stabbing, a spoon for scooping, and a knife for cutting. They’re all pretty dull, so don’t worry about cutting yourself.



  * Don’t drink anything but water, and only take a few bites of whatever human food you’re offered if it’s not fish or shellfish. I’m serious. You need to work up to tolerating human foods and drinks, or you’ll regret it.



  * Like us, they have special places they only use for pooping and peeing. These places are called a ‘restroom.’ So if you have to go, ask for where that room is.



  * If you leave the beach, stick with Marinette and her friends, and if they leave you alone for some reason, stay where you are- don’t go looking for them. Human cities are confusing.



  * There are huge metal things called ‘cars’ that are really loud and smell bad. Keep away from them.



  * If you don’t know what to do with your hands, find something to hold, or put them in your pockets- pants usually have pockets in the front and in the back near the waistband for holding small items.



And so it went as they swam, Chloe imparting the wisdom gleaned from many illicit trips to the mainland, and Adrien paying close attention. He really wanted to make a good impression, to show Marinette that he could enter her world and not embarrass her.

\----

Marinette, Alya, and Nino set up their chairs and things at the end of the beach near the arch where they’d met Adrien and his friend the night before. It just seemed like a good location- Adrien would probably transform there in privacy like he had the night before, and then be able to come join them without drawing attention. 

It was still early and the beach wasn’t crowded yet, though the hotel’s front desk had advised them that it would be more crowded today since it was Saturday. Marinette sat in her chair restlessly scanning the water and chewing on her thumbnail. She couldn’t relax at all.

She hadn’t updated her socials or told anyone other than her parents about Adrien’s existence yet, and the secret was weighing on her. Most of her friends posted, if not immediately upon confirming their soulmate marks, at least within a day of it. But she didn’t want to presume. She still had no idea if Adrien would even want to come visit her in Paris, and for two soulmates to avoid each other for long periods of time after they’d just found each other was… well, it was unheard of, unless there was something bad about the soulmate. She had told her parents they could tell others that she’d found her soulmate, but now she was regretting that. She’d just been excited, but a night of sleep only served to highlight the difficulties of having a soulmate bond with a merman.

Marinette was just wondering if, after obtaining her degree she should move to a city on the coast somewhere, when she noticed two people coming out from under the shadow of the arch. Since she’d been carefully making note of  _ anyone _ approaching the arch, she knew it had to be Adrien. And apparently he’d brought his friend from the night before, too- Chloe, if she remembered correctly.

Marinette stopped chewing on her thumbnail and sat up so fast that Alya and Nino, who also hadn’t moved from their chairs, immediately noticed. For a minute, Marinette felt like laughing, thinking of the picture they must make- sitting there, all of them fully clothed and looking as stiff as if they were in a doctor’s office instead of at the beach.

Yet despite that, her heart sped up and she couldn’t help smiling as she stood. She had dressed very carefully that morning, choosing to wear a very cute peasant style top and denim shorts with cuffed hems over a red and black polka dotted bikini. Alya and Nino were similarly wearing their clothes over their swimsuits, though Nino got away with simply wearing his swim shorts  _ as _ shorts.

Adrien was also wearing swim shorts- sky blue, with a loose-weave white button up shirt on top. His friend wore a lavender tube top and white shorts, both of which fit her perfectly. Both of them wore sandals to protect their feet. Marinette couldn’t help but wonder how many times Chloe had come ashore for her to have so many human clothes… and how she had paid for them. She could tell at a glance that she hadn’t simply stolen them from unwary beach-going tourists- they fit too well for that to be the case. But it did make her wonder.

A moment later she forgot all about it as Adrien’s face lit up at seeing her. Or maybe he was just excited to see Alya and Nino again, or just to be  _ on land  _ again… oh, who was she kidding. He was  _ her _ soulmate- he was happy to see  _ her. _ Her smile widened at the thought.

“Adrien, Chloe! Good to see you again!” she said as they got close.

“Of course it is,” Chloe said, flipping her long blonde hair behind her shoulder. “It’s us.”

Marinette blinked at her, then decided to ignore it. Instead, she turned to get a large picnic blanket out of the bag, spreading it on the pebbles in front of the chairs. Once that was done, she turned back and said, “Chloe, if you want to take my chair, Adrien and I can sit on the blanket.”

“Thank you, Marinette,” Chloe said, sitting down as if the beach chair were a throne. Alya and Nino stared at her, but Marinette was glad to see Alya reach into the cooler and offer her a bottle of water. She sat down on the blanket on the end nearest to Nino, while Adrien sat down facing her, leaving at least two feet of space between them.

“So,” he said, once everyone seemed to be settled. “How are we going to do this? Getting to know each other, I mean,” he said.

Marinette thought for a minute. “Well, why don’t we keep it simple? I’ll ask a question, then you ask a question, and we’ll just keep going until we come to something one of us wants to know more about.”

“Ugh,” Chloe muttered, taking a sip of her water. “This is going to be the most boring… Come on, Alya,” she said, getting back up. “I’m craving sushi. Nino can come too if he wants.”

“It’s barely 10,” Alya objected, looking up at her.

“So? Trust me, by the time we get where I’m going, it’ll be open. I’ve been there before.”

“Oh, so you must be the friend who knows all about humans,” Alya said, and Marinette hid a grin at the familiar note of interest in her best friend’s voice. Chloe might not know it, but she was about to be interrogated within an inch of her life.

Chloe, being as yet ignorant, just shrugged. “I wouldn’t say all,” was what she said, but the way she said it… 

Marinette and Adrien watched all their friends troop off down to the road access.

“Where are they going?” Adrien asked, a little frown between his brows.

Marinette shrugged, “To get sushi, apparently. Alya’s right though- it’s a little early. Is Chloe always like that? So...”

“Arrogant? Authoritative? Yeah. She can be abrasive, but she has a good heart. What’s sushi?”

“It’s… kind of a combination of a lot of different human foods,” Marinette said, “You take a sheet of seaweed, spread cooked rice over it, place some raw veggies and strips of fish, and roll it all up. Then you cut the roll into bite size pieces and eat it. Some people like to dip it in soy sauce or fish sauce first.”

Adrien’s mouth opened and then closed again. “I can see there’s a lot I have to learn about human food.”

Marinette giggled. “Yeah, you do. You’re in luck, though- my parents are bakers, and my whole family are pretty decent cooks. Anyway, that can count as your first question. So… um, how old are you?”

“I’m twenty years old,” Adrien replied.

“Really? I’m almost twenty myself! It’s nice that we’re so close in age.”

“Yes it is. Uh, you said you’re studying fa… fa-shion?” Adrien asked, sounding out the unfamiliar word.

“Yeah!”

“And that’s... making clothes that look good on people, if I remember right.”

“Yes- although, there are a lot of designers who will make clothes that are, in my opinion, just plain ugly. They  _ say _ that it’s ‘art’ but I think they just do it for shock value.”

Adrien’s face scrunched a little as he tried to absorb the meaning of that. Marinette winced.

“Sorry. Too many unfamiliar words?”

“Some,” Adrien admitted, “but I think I understand. So, what made you want to make clothes?”

Marinette raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know really… I guess it’s just always something I was interested in. I think… I think that when I was little I didn’t really like the clothes I saw in stores, so I was always thinking of what I’d like to wear instead. Maman- that’s my mother- didn’t have a lot of time to sew, but my Nonna- that’s my mother’s mother- she taught me how to sew, and once I did enough of it to understand how clothes fit together I started making my own patterns and sewing my own clothes.”

Adrien sank his head in his hands and puffed out his cheeks. “Okay. So, ‘sew’... that is making the clothes?”

“Yes. It’s… well, it’s not really  _ complicated _ , but there are a lot of terms and even concepts that I can see you’re not familiar with. Maybe this is something we should go into later? Anyway, it’s easier to understand if I show you.”

“Sure, sure!” Adrien said, looking a little relieved. “Your turn then.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters? What’s your family like?”

And so it went. Marinette noticed that Adrien’s questions often led to more involved explanations because he was almost totally ignorant of how humans lived, while hers were more straightforward, asking about his family life and relationships. Eventually she ran out of those, though, and his answers started getting longer, too.

“So, you  _ do _ have pets?” she asked, fascinated.

“Oh yes,” Adrien said, leaning back on his hands. He’d tried folding his legs up like Marinette, but had quickly gone back to stretching them out in front of him. “Some fish are very friendly, and can be taught to treat us like schoolmates, or at least as part of a cooperative community. We keep some types of sharks and dolphins as protectors and guardians, too.”

“Oh, okay… that’s really cool!” Marinette said, nodding. “I always thought of fish as… cold, unfeeling. I guess because they live in such a different environment- one that humans can’t fully inhabit.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Adrien said, though his expression was doubtful. Suddenly, his stomach rumbled, and he blinked. Marinette laughed.

“I guess it’s time for lunch! So… did you want to try some human food?”

“Yes!”

Adrien bounced to his feet and Marinette laughed again. 

“Alright. Let me just see what Nino, Alya, and Chloe are up to.”

Marinette got out her phone and sat down in her beach chair to quickly text Alya.

“What’s that?” Adrien asked, bending over to see the smartphone.

“It’s… well, it’s a communication device,” Marinette said, catching herself before she used another term he wouldn’t understand. “I can use it to talk to my friends, either by writing a note to them, or by using special devices inside it to talk to them with my voice. It can do a lot of other things, too, but that’s it’s main purpose. It’s called a smartphone, or just ‘phone’ for short.”

“Why do you do that?” Adrien asked, sitting down in the chair beside hers. “Why do you shorten so many words? Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“It can,” Marinette admitted. “There are a lot of different jobs that practically have their own language, because the terms they use just aren’t common outside of that job. That can get confusing. But mostly it’s because sometimes, when people come up with new things, they name them with long words. But that gets tiring to say over and over so people shorten them. ‘Phone’ for example… that didn’t even start out as ‘smartphone,’ that started as ‘telephone’ which, in a really old language, means ‘far sound’- because it sends the sound of your voice over a greater distance than people can shout, you see. It didn’t take long for people to shorten it to just ‘phone’ though.”

“Huh,” Adrien said, “I… think we might do something similar, actually. When we’re water-breathing, we can’t talk with sound, so we have a sign language we use. There are some phrases or meanings we use often that have very simple, easy signs. I wonder if that’s  _ because _ they are used a lot… it’s not something I ever thought of before.” 

Marinette nodded, then looked down when her phone chimed. The sound caught Adrien’s attention again.

“It makes noises, too?”

Marinette suppressed another giggle. Adrien’s ignorance was too adorable for words… although she supposed it would get old after a while… Still, he wasn’t a toddler. He’d pick things up quickly and she could show him how to search for more information if he ever got his hands on a computer or smartphone.

“That sound means that Alya read my note and sent a reply,” she said, opening the message. “Oh! It looks like there’s a street fair today! Do you want to go? There will be food there, but… it’s probably not the best.” She frowned suddenly. “I’m not actually sure how much or what kinds of human food you  _ should _ eat. Your body isn’t used to it… it could upset your stomach if you eat the wrong kind or too much of something.”

Adrien nodded, but his smile didn’t diminish. “Chloe said the same thing! But I really do want to try some human food.” 

His smile was bright and incredibly naive. It was instantly obvious he’d never experienced a stomach ache in his life. Marinette narrowed her eyes.

“Listen, I’m being serious here. If you eat too much of a food your body doesn’t know how to handle, it  _ will _ rebel. And that will be extremely unpleasant, and you might even feel like you’re going to die. You  _ won’t _ , but you’ll feel like it- trust me, I know. Okay?”

Adrien’s eyebrows rose at her serious tone, but he held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Alright, I understand! No more than a bite or two of anything that isn’t fish.”

Marinette nodded in satisfaction and stood up. “Let’s go, then!”

She so wanted to reach out and take his hand to pull him along, but… they weren’t there yet. She knew more  _ about _ him, but she didn’t know  _ him _ yet- how he reacted to things, how he showed affection, what his likes and dislikes were, and what made him happy or sad. It was too early for hand holding, no matter how much she wanted to. 

Still, as they made their way up the beach, his hand brushed against hers more than once, and she couldn’t help hoping that maybe he wanted to hold her hand, too.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya and Nino spend some time with Chloe. Adrien and Marinette are adorable, and then they discuss a possible plan for the near future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been so long since I updated. Yikes! I'm so sorry! Here is an extra long chapter to compensate. (Seriously, I spent so much time on this)

Alya and Nino followed Chloe as she led them confidently through the streets of the little town. It was obvious it was not her first time there, and Alya wondered at it, the questions coming almost too fast to remember. She also wondered if she would get the chance to ask any of them, or if Chloe was going to steer the conversation the way she was steering their path.

The town was beautiful, Alya had to admit, with the classic architecture, the window boxes full of colorful flowers, and some brightly painted buildings as well. It was still early, but it was also the end of summer, and the streets were already filling up with tourists. There even looked to be a kind of street fair, or maybe just a market, setting up in the plaza at the town center. She tried to keep track of where they were going, but Chloe was walking fast. To her surprise, Chloe pulled a smartphone with a gold-glitter case out of her pocket and made a call. 

“Ah yes, Jean Pierre, this is Chloe Bourgeois. I know it’s short notice, but it always is with me.” There was a brief pause. “I did, actually. Do you have two single rooms available? … oh, I see. Well, I suppose that will have to do. … Yes, I am planning to do some shopping, can I still have the packages delivered to the hotel? Wonderful. Yes, it will be cash, and I remember the check-out time. Thank you  _ so _ much, Jean Pierre.”

_ “That _ was fascinating,” Alya said, as Chloe set off again. 

“I told you it wasn’t my first time here,” Chloe said. 

“Yes, but I’m wondering where you get the money to spend,” Alya said in a low voice. She didn’t want any random passerby to overhear things that should stay secret. 

Chloe looked over her shoulder and smirked. “I don’t steal it, if that’s what you’re worried about. Come on, there’s a shop that sells boba tea and you were right earlier- it’s too early for sushi.”

Once they all had clear plastic cups with extra-wide straws full of their favorite beverage, they sat down at a street-side table. Most of the little bistros and cafes had outdoor seating with umbrellas or awnings to shade their customers. Typical of any seaside town with a semi-permanent mer presence, there were recycling cans  _ everywhere _ and multiple signs stating the fees for littering. Alya even saw one man scowl at an obvious tourist who threw her plastic cup in with the glass, before he shook his head, opened the lid of the recycling can and retrieved the cup, throwing it in the correct bin.

“So, where do you get the money?” Nino asked after a few moments.

“There’s a pawn shop that accepts pearls,” Chloe said. “The exchange rate isn’t what it should be, but they don’t ask questions about where the pearls came from, and it’s still more than enough euros to pay for whatever I need on any particular trip.”

“Okay, but where do you keep it all?” Alya wondered. She could think of at least two ways for Chloe to keep her personal belongings on land without arousing too much suspicion- a safety deposit box at a bank, or a long-term storage unit. But both of those would have required an address, so she was back at square one.

“I won’t tell you the location, but there’s a cave that’s only just below sea-level. I put everything in waterproof bags and make sure the more delicate items are double and triple bagged. I turn the phone off, of course. Whenever I visit the mainland, I get my phone and wallet first, maybe a few pearls if I’m running low on cash. And clothes, of course,” she smiled. “I have to admit- if there’s one thing I didn’t expect to like about passing as human, it’s shopping. But I really love it! I even have one of those overnight bags so the concierge doesn’t get suspicious when I show up in the evening without luggage.”

“And Adrien’s clothes?” Nino asked. Chloe shrugged.

“I’ve been trying to get him to come with me for years. If he ever decided to say yes, he’d have to have something to wear, right? Besides, it wasn’t hard- I have excellent taste, and we both have the preferred physique when we have legs.”

Alya raised an eyebrow, more for the tone of voice than in disbelief. As much as Chloe simultaneously intrigued and irritated her, she did look good, and the clothes she’d picked for Adrien both fit him and made him look irresistible. At least, she hoped Marinette found him irresistible… in her opinion, her bestie had been single for way too long.

“Speaking of Adrien,” Alya said, “what can you tell us about him?”

Chloe narrowed her eyes slightly, and her smile grew sharper. “For example?”

“What is he like?” Alya replied bluntly. “I don’t think merfolk are all that different than humans when it comes to wanting to make a good impression, but no one is perfect. And while I admit that Mari is far from perfect herself, I don’t want to see her hurt, either.”

Chloe snorted a laugh. “You know what? I like you. You’re not afraid to go for the throat.” She took another long sip and chewed before answering further. “Adrien is… well, let’s just say he’s very important to me, too and go from there. So I’ll make you a deal- you tell me all about Marinette, and I’ll tell you about Adrien, okay?”

Alya smirked and held out her hand. “Deal,” she said as they both shook on it. Nino just rolled his eyes.

“Okay, so… first question,” he said, leaning forward.

\----

By the end of the mutual interrogation it was lunchtime, and Alya decided that Chloe would make a decent friend, even if she could be a bit abrasive. At least she didn’t get all huffy when confronted with Alya’s own brand of brazen curiosity, and if she didn’t want to answer a question, she said so straight out. Alya could respect that. They would never be best friends, but they could be ordinary-friendly. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Chloe had been dropping some major hints that Nino should basically take Adrien under his wing, which soothed a lot of her own fears about how Adrien would fit into their lives. 

“He barely knows how to be a merman, much less a human man,” she’d said, “he needs to know  _ someone _ will answer his awkward questions without judging him for it.”

And Nino, being Nino, had just sat back and nodded. The way he could just… take things in stride was one of the things Alya loved about him, especially since she had an A-type personality and a nose for a scoop. He had a limit, as his concern about the ritual last night showed, but after the standard lecture about safety and sanity, he would usually sigh and insist on tagging along, and Alya knew it was because he wanted to be there if she needed him. So if Nino decided to adopt Adrien, Alya couldn’t think of a better role model.

That was about when she got the text from Marinette.

“Looks like the lovebirds are hungry,” she said, looking up from her phone. Their drinks were long gone now.

“Excellent,” Chloe said, smiling in a satisfied way. “That sushi restaurant should be open by now…”

But Alya had a different idea. “What about that street fair?”

Nino started nodding, but Chloe wrinkled her nose. “Listen- if it weren’t for the awful food, I would say yes, because watching Adrif-  _ Adrien _ take all that in will be adorable. But if he’s hungry, he should fill up on something he can eat first, because then he won’t be tempted to eat too much of things he should… get used to.”

Alya chuckled. “I bet you had to figure that out for yourself.”

Chloe grimaced. “I did. I warned him about it, too, but… he can get  _ very _ excited about new things.” 

“Okay, so… sushi first, and then the street fair?”

Chloe nodded.

“Okay,” Alya shrugged and updated Marinette by texting her the directions to the sushi place.

\----

Marinette had to admit that watching Adrien at the street fair was delightful. He was like a little kid set loose in a candy store and she’d even gotten her wish of holding his hand as he dragged her from one little stall to the next. The sushi place had been good, and she’d enjoyed watching him try it for the first time, but that had nothing on the wide-eyed wonder he was displaying now.

They sampled  _ everything, _ and she really did mean everything because Chloe seemed to have an endless supply of cash to hand over. That made Marinette both relieved and anxious, because where had she gotten it all? But at the same time, at least she was paying honestly for things. Well… some of the prices were grossly inflated to her frugal mind, but it was a street fair, after all.

The true highlight was just watching Adrien’s expressions as he tasted this or that, or picked up cheap little knick knacks to examine them. She had to convince him that she didn’t really need anything, too, because he was more than ready to buy her anything she even so much as admired. The funny thing was that he did appear to know the value of money- she overheard him asking Chloe about the pricing several times- so she couldn’t guess why he apparently wanted to shower her in gifts when they’d barely met.

The street fair palled after they’d been through all the stalls- some of them twice- so they headed back to the beach as a group. Once they got there and straightened out the beach blanket and readjusted the umbrellas, Marinette was ready for more questions.

To her surprise, Adrien unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, revealing a near-perfect physique. Then he held out his hand and said with a smile, “Come in the water with me.”

Marinette blushed as Alya and Nino both whistled. Last night Adrien had been wearing both an undershirt and a light jacket, so while it was obvious he was in pretty good shape, she hadn’t suspected just  _ how _ good. Fortunately, Alya and Nino had attracted his attention, laughing and explaining what the whistle meant, so he didn’t look back at her until she was fairly sure her blush could be attributed to the heat now rising up off the beach. Slowly, Marinette removed her own blouse and shorts, torn between wanting to see Adrien’s reaction to her, and ignoring him entirely. She wasn’t out of shape, and growing up in a bakery had actually mostly put her off sweets unless she had a craving, but she wasn’t exactly the athletic type.

_ Still, _ she told herself, folding her clothes quickly and stuffing them in one of the beach bags,  _ I know I look good in this bikini- it’s why I wore it! Come on, Marinette- he’s just a boy, even if he is your soulmate. _

Standing a bit taller after her internal pep-talk, Marinette took his hand and they walked down to the water together.

They waded in at the same time, and Marinette was surprised how warm it was. It really felt a lot warmer than the day before… but she remembered that the sky had been overcast all morning the day before. Maybe that was what made the difference.

Adrien kept hold of her hand until they reached deeper water- which was a lot farther out than Marinette had anticipated. Most of the swimmers stayed closer to shore. Adrien squeezed her hand and she looked at him. 

“Would you mind if I had my tail?” he asked, sounding a little unsure. “I’ve never actually tried to swim with legs, and I’d feel a lot more comfortable.”

“That- that’s fine!” Marinette said, her voice a little high-pitched. “But, um, what are you going to do with your shorts?”

Adrien frowned. “Oh, right. I’m not really used to considering clothing.” He bit his lip and looked at her speculatively. “I don’t want to ask you to hold them, and if I hold them, I’ll only be able to keep one hand for  _ you _ …”

Marinette raised her eyebrows and tried to ignore what that look did to her insides. “I can swim, you know.”

“I assumed so, but…” Adrien abruptly dropped her hand to scratch his head at the same time as the tide pushed a patch of colder water at her. “It’s just… different,” he said, with a shrug and a helpless look. “I’ve never... been with someone who can’t breathe water.”

Marinette’s mouth dropped open in sudden understanding. But in the next second she squinted with a mischievous smile and dove headfirst into an approaching wave. Her stroke was smooth and her kick powerful as she propelled herself farther away from Adrien. She grinned, imagining the dumbstruck look on his face. She might have grown up in Paris, but it wasn’t like her parents couldn’t afford to get her swim lessons or buy her a pass to the pool every summer. She’d even briefly considered joining the swim team at her school when one of the coaches asked her to try out.

The water was a little murky, but she could see well enough- it didn’t even sting her eyes, like the chlorinated pool at home did if she forgot her goggles. All too soon she had to surface to take a breath, and when she looked back toward shore, Adrien was gone. She giggled a little, and ducked back under to see if she could spot him. Suddenly there were hands on her waist and she was shoved back up, accidentally swallowing some water in surprise. She coughed it out, still treading water, but the hands on her waist remained, and she felt something else brushing her skin. 

“I’m so sorry,” Adrien said, when she’d gotten control again. “You surprised me, and I just wanted to return the surprise, not choke you.”

Marinette snorted. “What did you think was going to happen if you surprised me while my head was under?”

“I… didn’t? Sorry,” Adrien repeated sheepishly. He finally released, watching curiously as she continued to tread water, and as he did she felt that brush of something else along her waist. And noticed once more that the water felt colder.

“What is that?” she asked. “What are you holding?”

“Oh… my shorts. I don’t want them floating away, but I can’t wear them with the tail.” He blushed a little. “I really should have thought of that before doing this…”

Marinette cocked her head a little, thinking. “Let me see them,” she demanded. She’d avoided looking too closely before, but she thought she remembered them having a drawstring.

Adrien raised his eyebrows but brought a fistfull of blue fabric up to the surface. Marinette grabbed it and found the waist… yes, there were drawstrings. Smiling in triumph, she next grabbed his arm and quickly wrapped the shorts around it, making sure all the loose edges were tucked in. Then she used the drawstrings to tie it so it wouldn’t come undone. 

Adrien held the arm out to look at it. “... I wouldn’t have thought of that, thank you!” he said, shooting her a bright smile. Marinette waved away his thanks.

“It’s really nothing.”

“No, it is!” Adrien insisted, closing the distance between them. “I can see I have a lot to learn, but I’m glad you’ll be one of my teachers.” 

He took her hands and drew her after him as he started to slowly swim backwards. Marinette blushed, but relaxed and let herself be guided. The water felt warm again. 

“You know, whenever we’re touching the water feels warmer,” she said after a minute of determining that it was not just her imagination. “Is that normal?”

Adrien blinked. “I don’t know. I haven’t really noticed anything, but I’m always comfortable in water. There is a saying, though…” he trailed off, frowning a little and looking into the distance. His hands moved below the surface of the water, and Marinette cocked her head, trying to discern some meaning in the movements.

“A saying?” Marinette prompted.

“Yeah, sorry. It’s… hard to translate into words, I guess. It’s more a collection of concepts and… anyway, it’s something like ‘warm waters of home follow your soulmate.’ Or maybe it’s ‘surround your soulmate?’” He shook his head, grimacing. “That’s closer, but still not quite right. It’s the closest I can get, though,” he continued, his expression softening into a warm smile. “I always thought it was just a nice thought image, but I think you just proved the truth behind it.” 

He squeezed her hands gently and her breath caught for a moment, her chest tight with an emotion she wasn’t quite ready to name yet.

“That’s really beautiful,” she said, taking a shaky breath.  _ Less than a day _ , she reminded herself.  _ I’ve only known him less than a day. _ “I wish human soulmates had that kind of effect on one another…”

They swam together for a while, circling around each other, sometimes touching each other, sometimes not. Adrien showed off, diving to bring up clams and rocks, and pretty shells, and he seemed fascinated by the way her hair behaved in the water and out of it. Marinette asked about merfolk hair, and why it behaved differently, but he couldn’t tell her much about it. So instead she challenged him to several short races, and while he beat her every time, she could tell he was impressed with how fast a human could move through the water.

Eventually she got tired and they headed back to shore, with Marinette untying his shorts and then heading in first to give Adrien time and some privacy to get his legs back and put his shorts back on. It was about mid-afternoon by then, and Chloe was the only one sitting in the chairs. She was wearing a pair of large lense sunglasses and looked completely at ease, scrolling on a gold-glitter-cased phone Marinette had never seen before.

“Where are Nino and Alya?” Marinette asked, wrapping a towel around herself. She started to hand one to Adrien, but he just shook his head and laid down on the blanket she’d spread out earlier, content to let the sun and air dry him.

“They went to get more snacks,” Chloe said, not looking up. “They should be back soon.”

“Okay. I didn’t know you knew how to use a phone,” Marinette said, sitting down beside her. Maybe it was a little presumptuous of her to assume, but… well,  _ Adrien _ didn’t know how to use one after all. Chloe didn’t seem offended, though.

“This is  _ not _ my first time on the mainland,” she simply said with a little smirk.

Marinette considered that. “You do seem to have a lot of connections here,” she mused, remembering how the staff at the sushi place seemed to know her. “But… sorry, but I got the impression that you’re not really supposed to come ashore?” She shot a glance at Adrien.

“Yeah,  _ Chloe- _ we’re not supposed to come ashore,” Adrien teased, smirking himself. His eyes were closed against the sun, and he’d put his hands behind his head. Marinette almost choked and hastily dug out a bottle of water. There he was, laid out like… she banished the thought before it had a chance to make her blush.

Chloe scooped up a pebble from the beach and bounced it off Adrien’s forehead. Marinette would have been worried, but it was a tiny little pebble, no larger than a piece of gravel.

“Hey!”

“See if I ever buy anything for you again,” Chloe said, but Marinette could see how she was trying to hide a smile. She looked down at Chloe’s phone again, chewing thoughtfully on her lip. Finally, she pulled out her own phone.

“Let’s exchange numbers,” she said, opening up a new contact.

Chloe finally looked up at her. “Why?”

“Lots of reasons,” Marinette replied. “Adrien can tell me a lot about merfolk culture, but he’s, you know, a guy. Maybe a girl has a different perspective on things. Plus, what if something happens to Adrien?”

Chloe pulled the sunglasses off her face, squinting at her. “Is something likely to happen to Adrien while you’re with him?”

Marinette flushed. “No? I mean, I’m certainly not going to put him in danger, but… sometimes things happen and it’s just bad luck or, or being in the right place at the wrong time.”

Chloe squinted at her a moment longer, but then relented. 

“Alright. It might even be fun.”

It didn’t take long to exchange numbers, but Marinette was keenly aware of Adrien watching the whole thing. He’d rolled over onto his stomach and propped his head up on his elbows as he watched, which was another image that Marinette was going to revisit in her dreams.

“So… you can contact each other now?” he asked.

“Yes,” was Chloe’s concise answer.

Adrien pondered that for a moment or two while Marinette sent a test message to Chloe. 

“Hey,” he said after a minute or two. “We should talk about… ways we can make this relationship work.”

Marinette’s stomach clenched. “I… actually have an idea about that,” she said hesitantly. 

Chloe put her phone away and Adrien shifted again, sitting up properly. Marinette took a breath.

“I know you said you didn’t want to leave your people, but… what if you came to live with me and my parents?”

They both stared at her while she quivered with nervous tension. She hadn’t even asked her parents yet, but… somehow she felt sure they would agree. Sure, they didn’t know Adrien, but having him in the house would provide an excellent opportunity to  _ get _ to know him. Plus, it wasn’t like they were immediately going to hop in bed together and make things awkward for her parents. Sure Adrien was attractive to the point of distraction, but Marinette had never felt comfortable getting very intimate with people she hardly knew.

“Would they be alright with that? Would  _ you _ be alright with that?” he asked quietly.

Marinette smiled, but it felt stiff. “Of course! I mean, I wouldn’t have said anything if  _ I _ wasn’t… but I haven’t actually asked my parents yet. And I know you don’t want to leave your people, but I was thinking you could probably come back here on weekends, or we could come together sometimes, and then there’s the winter holiday… Anyway, I- I’m pretty sure it’s at least an option.”

“Here’s another option,” Chloe spoke up. “Why don’t  _ you _ come and live with  _ us?” _

Marinette frowned at her, confused. “Because I can’t breathe water?” she said. “Besides, if I don’t go back to school, I’ll lose my scholarship and then… well, then all the plans I’d made are going to collapse.”

“And why should my Adrifins put  _ his _ plans on hold just to go live with you?” Chloe asked, sharply.

Adrien sighed and rolled his eyes. “You talk as if I  _ have _ plans, Chloe. But we both know Father hasn’t let me make any actual choices there.” He looked straight at Marinette. “Right now I don’t have plans for my life. I help out where I can, but it’s all things anyone else can do.”

Chloe scoffed.

“You know it’s true!” he insisted. “ _ You _ finally got the King to agree to your plans, but me? You know I’m just one among many.”

“That’s  _ not _ true. Uncle Gabe just wants you to… keep your options open,” Chloe ended rather lamely.

“What Father wants is for me to take over, but you and I both know that’s not going to happen,” Adrien said firmly. “But, if I go live with my soulmate and actually learn what it’s like to be human- not just outsider details- then, maybe when the time comes, I’ll be able to forge new connections between our peoples.”

Chloe crossed her arms. “You know he’s not open to that.”

“Not right now, no, but you’ve told me enough to make me think we can’t go on the way we have been.”

Chloe looked like she’d bitten something sour, and Marinette knew there was a subtext to their argument that she wasn’t getting, but Chloe finally nodded.

“You have a point. Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll help you convince Uncle Gabe to let you do this.”

“Assuming your parents agree,” Adrien said soberly, looking back at Marinette. Marinette checked the time on her phone. As luck would have it, her parents would probably be cleaning and restocking at the moment. Every Saturday there was about an hour and half in the afternoon when very few customers came in unless they were picking up an order. It was the best time to call if she didn’t want to wait until evening after they closed.

“They’re probably free right now,” she said. “I’ll, uh, call them now.”

Biting her lower lip, she decided calling Tom would be best- Sabine tended to leave her phone up in the apartment, and relied on people calling the bakery’s landline if they wanted to reach her. She didn’t like the interruptions in customer service that came with a ringing cell-phone, even if she never answered hers during business hours. Tom had a bit more lee-way, though, since he was usually in the back actually dealing with the day’s bakes.

The call connected and it only took a fraction of a ring for her papa to answer.

“Marinette! Hold on ooooone second…” Marinette heard the distinct metallic scrapes that meant he was removing baking trays from the industrial oven. “Okay! Now, how are things going?”

Marinette grinned at his overly casual tone. He always did this when her maman scolded him for getting too involved in her personal life, but it never worked for long.

“They’re good papa. Actually… I was wondering if, if Adrien and I could video-call you? With maman, of course. I just- are you busy? Because we could wait till later!”

“No, no! Now is fine. Fine! All good. That was, uh, the last bake for today unless someone calls in an order, and you know… they have to cool before… oh what am I saying? Of course you know. Anyway. Yeah, call back in a minute. Or should we call you?”

Marinette sighed in fond exasperation. Sabine had always said she inherited her nervous disposition from Tom, but it had never been more obvious. Oddly enough, knowing that  _ he _ was nervous made her calm down. 

“No, papa, I’ll call you. See you in a minute!”

She hung up and smiled at Adrien’s raised eyebrows. “You’ll want to come sit next to me for this, so you can see them and they can see you.”

Adrien frowned. “But how…?” Then he shook his head, and smiled ruefully. “Nevermind. It’s probably some other amazing human thing- I’ll ask all about it later.”

He got up and pulled Alya’s chair closer to hers before sitting in it. He was still shirtless, but he’d mostly dried off except for his shorts. Marinette started the video call, and just before it connected, Chloe threw his white shirt in his face, hissing, “Put your shirt on!”

Adrien looked confused, but pulled it on, leaving it unbuttoned for now. The call connected and Tom and Sabine looked out from the phone screen, both grinning and waving. There was a bit of lag, but it wasn’t very bad- at least, not yet. As usual, their own camera image floated near the bottom right corner, and Adrien leaned closer, temporarily taking most of his head out of frame as he tried to figure out how the camera worked.

“Hi honey! It’s so good to see you, it’s been so quiet around here!” Sabine immediately gushed. “And- oh my! Aren’t you the handsome one!” she continued, as Adrien’s face came back into frame. She suddenly gasped and said, “Marinette, he could model for you! Didn’t you say you would need to find a model for some of your classes this year?”

Marinette’s cheeks heated yet again, but she resisted the urge to facepalm. “Maman!” she scolded. “Can you leave me to figure that out, please?”

_ “Now _ who’s jumping ahead of things?” Tom teased, squeezing her maman’s shoulder. “Hello Adrien, I’m Tom, Marinette’s father, and this is her mother Sabine. It’s very nice to meet you, even if it’s only over the phone!”

“Hello,” Adrien said, with a small smile and timid wave. “It’s nice to meet Marinette’s parents…”

He trailed off, and Marinette decided to jump in with both feet. “Listen. We- I- had something to ask you. Obviously… I can’t stay here to get to know Adrien because I’d lose my scholarship, and I really don’t want to do that. But, Adrien can’t really travel back and forth so… I was wondering how you would feel about him moving in with us for a few months? Just so we could, you know, be together and figure out what our relationship is going to be.”

On the screen Sabine gasped again and clasped her hands in obvious delight, but Tom frowned.

“Well… I don’t know, cupcake. How would that work? I mean, our apartment is on the second floor- all those stairs, you know, and putting in a chair lift is a big expense-”

“Nonsense!” Sabine cut in. “Of course you can come Adrien. We’ll just work around any special needs you have.”

At first Marinette wondered what they were talking about, until she realized that they thought Adrien would have a mertail the whole time. 

“Actually, that won’t be necessary! Either the chair-lift, or accommodating his, uh, special needs. Adrien can, um, split his tail into legs.”

Both of her parents' mouths dropped open.

“It’s true,” Adrien said, smiling. “It’s not something we go around telling random humans about though, so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t say anything. Or, well, mention that I’m a mer at all, really.”

Now Sabine looked a little worried, too. “Well dear… I’m not sure…”

Marinette sighed. “Maman, Papa- do you really want to deal with all the publicity that would come with me having a mer soulmate? All the prying and questions and paparazzi?”

They both looked alarmed at that. “Heaven’s no!” Tom exclaimed. “We’d never be able to run the bakery under those conditions!”

“Exactly,” Marinette said. “He has good reasons for passing as human, and I assume he has good reasons for keeping it secret, too. Okay?”

“I don’t actually know if my own family will agree to this proposed plan, either,” Adrien said suddenly. “Honestly, it depends on whether my father agrees. I don’t know what else we would do, though, with you being in classes so much,” he said directly to Marinette. 

She met those green eyes directly and knew at once that she didn’t want to be stuck in school with no opportunity to get to know him better. And if she left school… but would a career compensate for losing her soulmate?

“We’ll make it work,” she said, reaching over and squeezing his hand. He smiled softly in response.

“Awwwww…!”

The chorus of delighted appreciation coming from her phone speakers broke the moment, and despite her blush, Marinette knew the battle for her parents’ approval and help was already won.

“That settles it,” Sabine said, nodding sharply and confirming Marinette’s inner knowledge. “Adrien, you do whatever it takes to convince your father to let you come and stay with us. We’ll even talk to him ourselves, if you want!”

Adrien smiled wider, though it seemed tight to Marinette. 

“That’s very kind of you. I hope it won’t be necessary, but thank you,” he said. 

“Well, we should meet him eventually, and your mother, of course,” Tom said. He tapped his chin. “You know, we could close the bakery tomorrow… take an early train and meet you all…”

Marinette brightened. “Really? But Sundays can be the busiest day of the week!”

Sabine laughed. “One missed Sunday isn’t going to send us to the poor house, Marinette. Besides, a couple of hard working bakers deserve a little holiday every once in a while, right?”

Marinette snorted. “That’s not what you said when I was younger.”

“That was then, this is now,” Tom said, backing up her maman. “That’s settled then! We’ll check the train schedule and text you, okay?”

“Sure! And thanks,” Marinette said, smiling softly. She already felt more at ease now that her parents were coming to meet Adrien before facing the possibility of living in the same house with him.

“I look forward to meeting you!” Adrien said from beside her. Marinette glanced at him, surprised at the polite, but almost closed off tone. Meanwhile, her parents signed off and the call ended.

“Great!” Chloe remarked, but her tone also sounded forced. “Now all you have to do is convince Uncle Gabe!”

“Yeah,” Adrien said, sounding dejected. “Let’s hope he’s as reasonable about this as Marinette’s parents were,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, I'm so sorry for the long time between updates. In fact, I'm not happy with my progress on either this fic, or Living with Dragons. And since I still have a lot of world-building to do with Land and Sea (there are *implications* people! They must be explored!), I've decided to put this fic on hiatus until Living with Dragons is complete.
> 
> I WILL be coming back to it! But I know it's a more enjoyable experience for me to read a fic that updates regularly, and I want y'all to have that, too. And right now, regrettably, I can't promise that for Land and Sea.


End file.
